For the past month, Uinta County has had an alarming increase in the number of COVID-19 cases due to local parties and bars celebrating Memorial Day weekend. The advice to wear masks and social distance were ignored by most before, during, and after these celebrations.
“From Memorial Day weekend and the weekend after there were parties that infected more people that were traced back to those same bars,” stated lifelong Uinta County resident Kanye Twitty.
“I personally know a few people that were infected specifically from people that initial night at the bar spread the virus. But now other areas are becoming a source and people from that initial event are responsible for spreading it through town.”
Many individuals of this small town do not agree with wearing masks; however, according to Twitty, more individuals are wearing masks now most likely due to the great outbreak they just witnessed or because businesses are now requiring employees to wear them.
“I run a business in town and a majority of patrons do not wear masks,” stated Twitty. “They also comment on their dislike for the precaution signs and barricades set up in the business for social distancing. The grocery store I would say 60% not masked and 40% masked. My line of work being more industrial, the demographic is much less for masks.”
Uinta County had their first positive case of COVID-19 on April 1 and the numbers remained in the single digits with individuals fully recovering.
On April 23 the state lab of Wyoming announced the ability to expand testing due to more availability. One would think this would show an increase in cases due to more people simply being able to be tested but, as of May 16, they were still in single digits of only 8 confirmed cases.
However, the success in keeping low COVID-19 case numbers has diminished. On June 4 they reached double digits at 10 cases and that quickly rose to 48 a week later on June 11. That number more than doubled, reaching 118 cases as of June 22.
Local media sources in Uinta County blamed the bars, not stating specifically which ones, and local parties over the Memorial Day weekend. Chronologically, the two weeks after that weekend was when the rise in cases started, proving it to be the source.
In the following week, individuals infected at the parties and bars continued to spread the virus with those they came in contact with before realizing they were contaminated.
We do see that people are recovering from this outbreak in Uinta County though. As of June 23, the Uinta County Public Health Facebook page shared that there are currently 72 active cases, 53 confirmed by the labs and 19 probable cases associated with the initial outbreak from Memorial Day weekend. It is not much of a decline to share but it is progress.
