August 5, 2021 |
Hours after the Wyoming Department of Health warned of increasing cases of the Sars-COV-2 virus in the state, Governor Mark Gordon issued a statement Wednesday saying he will not issue any mask mandates ahead of the upcoming school year.
The governor said local school boards are in the best position to assess how students can return to classrooms.
Earlier yesterday, the health department recommended both vaccinated and unvaccinated people wear masks indoors as a defense against the new Delta variant of the virus, which emerged after the aggressive rollout of vaccines this year.
The carefully worded news release from the health department said that 95 percent of 5,000 lab-confirmed or probable cases in Wyoming between May 1 and July 28 were among individuals who “were not fully vaccinated.” The release acknowledged that a small percentage of the cases occurred among fully vaccinated people. The release was silent on how many of the cases were among those who had not received any shot at all.
A person is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after two doses of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or two weeks after one dose of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine are received.
The health department release stated that most most of the cases this summer are “likely linked” to the fast-spreading Delta variant.
