[ad_1]
Nurse Lindsey LeVeck adjusts intravenous tubing on a tower placed outside a room of a COVID-19 patient at the ICU at Wyoming Medical Center in Casper in May. Coronavirus hospitalizations are ticking upward across Wyoming.
Gov. Mark Gordon is using $30 million in federal funds to help alleviate staffing shortages in Wyoming’s hospitals and other health care facilities, his office announced Wednesday.
“Wyoming’s healthcare system and healthcare workers, in every community are feeling the strain of this surge,” Gordon said in a statement.
“We need to recognize our healthcare workers’ commitment to caring for our neighbors during the pandemic. They are working extra-long hours and at times having to cover for sick colleagues. These are very stressful times for all of us, but particularly those in the healthcare industry. This is a means to thank them and to try to make sure we can keep them on the job,” he continued.
The governor plans to pursue other options for supporting health care providers during the surge, including the use of Wyoming National Guard members as needed, he office said.
COVID-19 is surging in Wyoming, with hospitalizations and active cases near the state’s winter peak.
Ten Wyoming hospitals were experiencing a critical staffing shortage Wednesday, according to federal data.
There were 230 people in Wyoming hospitals Tuesday. At the height of the pandemic in late November, 247 people were being treated for the virus in Wyoming hospitals and active cases neared 12,000 — roughly 2% of the state. At that time, more than a dozen counties implemented local mask requirements. Shortly after Gov. Mark Gordon announced a statewide mandate.
[ad_2]
Source link
