COVID-19 daily briefing: April 20, 2020

As of 9 a.m., April 20, 2020 

1. Wyoming: Confirmed cases of COVID-19: 313. Deaths: 2 — Recovered: 233. Probable, untested cases: 113.
2. By county: Laramie County leads the state with 71 confirmed cases, followed by Teton with 62, Fremont with 49, Natrona with 38 and Campbell with 13. Two counties, Platte and Weston, have reported no cases. 
3. Testing: 7,386 tests had been administered and processed, according to the Wyoming Department of Health. Experts and officials agree positive test numbers fall well short of the reality of the disease’s spread.
4. United States: 760,245 confirmed cases, according to the Johns Hopkins Institute. Total deaths: 40,690 — Total recoveries: 71,003.
5. The latest: Wyoming on Friday became the last state in the union to surpass 300 confirmed cases. Of the confirmed cases, nearly 75% have recovered, according to DOH numbers. The state’s existing orders are consistent with phase one of President Donald Trump’s guidelines for relaxing pandemic restrictions, Gov. Mark Gordon said in a release Friday. Gordon confirmed the state’s orders will remain in place until April 30, and acknowledged there are “serious shortages” of personal protective equipment and testing supplies. “What we do in the coming weeks will determine the way we can ease these orders and rekindle our economy,” Gordon said.   
6. More news: Campbell County Health is the latest Wyoming hospital to cut executive pay and employee hours as a result of the outbreak’s fiscal impacts, the Casper Star-Tribune reports. The city of Cheyenne laid off 17 workers due to revenue declines from both a slowing energy sector and the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. The University of Wyoming’s American Heritage Center and the Wyoming State Museum are collaborating to collect information about the experiences and thoughts of Wyoming citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

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