Wyoming was thrown into the worldwide pandemic pretty late in the game. We’ve been trying our best to keep up with the rest of the country, but as many state’s cases are declining, ours have yet to be at their worst.
At an afternoon press conference on April 15th, Governor Mark Gordon worked to explain our current situation. “We are not in sync with our neighboring state, but it means our actions will not be the same, either,” Gordon said, “I’ll do what’s best for Wyoming residents.”
Gordon held this press conference to assure Wyoming citizens we need to abide by the first wave of orders until April 30th. These include keeping nonessential businesses closed, limiting gatherings to no more than ten people, and keeping schools closed until the end of the orders.
On Thursday, April 23rd, Mark Gordon held another press conference as we near the 30th. He was updating the public about modifications to the orders – a second wave. Gordon was joined by Dr. Alexia Harrist and Superintendent for Public Instruction, Jillian Balow.
Gordon laid out the plan for this new set of orders that will be released next week, and go until May 15th. “We’ll be taking very slow, incremental, and thoughtful steps on how to ease these restrictions in Wyoming,” said Gordon. “I want to reiterate that this will be a balanced approach guided by two main principles: public safety and allowing our people to get back to work.”
According to Gordon, the new orders will be more lenient, allowing barbershops and gyms to reopen. There is also a new addition to the orders allowing “county health officials to request variances from those orders on a county-wide basis.” In other words, county health officials can work with other important members of their community to decide what actions would be best, and then request those leniencies or restrictions from the state government. Towards the end of the press conference, Mark Gordon states that this could allow counties to be more flexible or more strict when it comes to precautions and reopenings.
Dr. Harrist spoke about the current medical issues Wyoming is facing and how those impact our reopening status. Harrist said that we had not had the widespread availability of tests that we would have liked due to supply demands and other concerns. “The overall lack of testing is a concern for us as we make big decisions about Wyoming’s next steps,” said Harrist. “We know there are more cases out there than we have been able to identify, and so it’s hard for us to give you a complete picture.”
Harrist said that, while this might seem grim, the status of Wyoming’s medical field has improved as private testing is now available, and testing for those who show symptoms even though they don’t fall under the priority status is now open.
The message of this conference was that Wyoming is doing everything it can to open up the state and our economy again, but we must ensure the safety of our citizens.
“I’ve said before that this will not be a light switch,” said Governor Gordon. “We are building a plane as we are flying it, and with your help, we’ll keep it in the air.”
