Probable Cause of Teton County COVID-19 Case Announced: No Community Spread Established at this Time

After learning details of the epidemiological follow up completed by the Wyoming Department of Health regarding the second Teton County, WY, COVID-19 case announced Friday, the Teton County Health Department has been notified that the probable cause of a Teton County healthcare worker’s exposure is domestic travel-related. At this time, health officials are not considering the case to be community transmission. People who have had close contact with a person who tests positive for COVID-19 are identified and contacted by the Wyoming Department of Health.

“Individuals who have had direct contact with a person with known exposure should self-monitor for fever, cough, and flu-like symptoms and call their provider or the St. John’s COVID call-line for evaluation (307-739-4898 x3) if they become ill,” said Teton County Health Department Director of Health Jodie Pond, MPH. “They may be required to self isolate or be quarantined, based on direction from the Wyoming Department of Health.”

According to St. John’s Health Communications Officer Karen Connelly, St. John’s Health was notified by a reference lab on Friday that the healthcare worker tested positive for COVID-19. This individual is the second confirmed positive case of COVID-19 in Teton County, WY. The provider, who works in the hospital, self-isolated at first onset of symptoms, which was more than a week ago. “The provider, who continues to self-isolate, is feeling much better at this time,” said Connelly.

St. John’s Health CEO Paul Beaupre, MD, provided the following statement:

“Just as we believe that COVID-19 is likely present at high rates in our community, we know that healthcare workers are at extremely high risk for exposure, even though this provider does not appear to have been exposed at work. Our healthcare workers deserve great respect from all of us for the job they are doing to take care of our community during this pandemic. I ask you all to respect the provider’s privacy, as we would respect the privacy of any other patient.

“I cannot emphasize enough the importance of everyone in the community doing their part to ensure that the health infrastructure maintains the ability to take care of sick people and provide other vital services, such as delivering babies and providing care for people with stroke, heart attack, etc. Please become educated on everything you can do as an individual, as a family, or as a business, to help control the spread of this disease in our community. All of this information can be found easily online at www.jhcovid.com. Websites for St. John’s Health, the Teton County Health Department, and the CDC are other excellent resources.”

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Media contacts:

Karen Connelly, St. John’s Health, 307.739.7380, kconnelly@stjohns.health

Jodie Pond, Teton County Health Department, 307.732.8461, jodie.pond@wyo.gov