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At one point earlier this month, Teton County had the highest COVID-19 case rate per capita in the country. Many other Western mountain towns were also at the forefront of the Omicron surge in our region, but hospitalizations and deaths have so far remained low in the resort communities. KHOL's Will Walkey reports.
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Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the federal health care worker coronavirus vaccine mandate to go through. A lower court had put the mandate on pause in late November. Now any employee, volunteer, or contractor working at health care facilities receiving Medicaid or Medicare funding have to be fully vaccinated or provide an exemption by Feb. 28. Leading Age and Wyoming Hospital Association President Eric Boley told Wyoming Public Radio's Kamila Kudelska they expect to see staff shortages in hospitals and nursing homes border to border in the state.
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Omicron cases are surging across the Mountain West. In several states, more than 80% of ICU beds are filled. While these COVID-19 infections tend to have milder overall symptoms for individuals, they’re still landing people in the hospital and stressing health care systems and workers.
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Health care worker vaccine mandate presses forward while state worries of even worse staff shortagesLast week, the Supreme Court allowed the federal health care worker coronavirus vaccine mandate to go through. A lower court had put the mandate on pause in late November. Now any employee, volunteer or contractor working at health care facilities receiving Medicaid or Medicare funding has to be fully vaccinated, be tested weekly or provide an exemption by Feb. 28.
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Wyoming legislators recently punted on fixes to the state's system for an involuntary treatment called Title 25. That system allows police or mental health officials to detain someone they consider to be a danger to themselves or others, and make them undergo psychiatric treatment. For years the system has been plagued by ballooning costs, the lack of available treatment, and the proper facilities.
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With hospitals in the Mountain West overrun with COVID-19 patients, states are increasingly utilizing monoclonal antibody treatment to ease a seemingly endless public health crisis — one that could worsen with the emergence of the highly contagious omicron variant.
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Elective surgeries are being canceled or delayed throughout Wyoming. The causes are many, but the primary culprit is the Delta variant, which continues to wreak havoc on hospitals throughout one of the county's least vaccinated states.
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Over in the northwest part of the state is Sublette County. It's the only county in the state without a hospital and it's in the top five for lowest vaccination rates in the state. Wyoming Public Radio's Caitlin Tan brings us this story.
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Wyoming has roughly a 39 percent vaccination rate against COVID-19 and is seeing its hospitals fill up. State health officials say that approximately 96 percent of those in the hospital have not been vaccinated. Another fact is that by the time many reach the hospital they have serious cases of COVID-19 because they didn't seek treatment when symptoms first arrived. Dr. Donald Lloyd Jones is the President of the American Heart Association and the Director of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. He tells Wyoming Public Radio's Bob Beck why Wyoming's numbers concern him.
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The Campbell County Health Board of Trustees wants to fight COVID-19 vaccine requirements coming soon from the federal government.