After two years of low infections, flu infections have been rising dramatically in Wyoming since late October. Hailey Bloom, the Public Information Officer at the Casper-Natrona County Health Department, expressed surprise at the rate of spread.
“Typically, we don’t see these illnesses in these types of volumes until later in the year, usually after the holidays”, Bloom said. “However, we really started to see more cases or an increase in cases, especially at the beginning of October, and it's just kind of been picking up ever since.”
Kim Deti, the spokesperson for the Wyoming Department of Health, said the relaxing of masking and general hygiene after the pandemic is a major reason for this.
“The last two years, basically influenza didn't show up in our state”, Deti said. “And that was largely due to precautions people made?... We do think it won’t be like the last two seasons. We do expect this to be a more normal situation as far as flu this season”.
By more normal, Deti means flu rates similar to before the pandemic.
According to the Wyoming Department of Health, flu activity in the state is considered sporadic. The department encourages those above six months to get the flu shot as soon as possible since it takes almost two weeks for the body to be immunized after vaccination.