The Wyoming Department of Health isn’t endorsing a study from the University of Washington that is predicting deaths for the state of Wyoming from the COVID-19 virus.
The study, released Tuesday, estimates that Wyoming will have a total of 143 deaths through August 4, 2020 if “strong social distancing measures and other protective measures” are continued.
Wyoming will experience four deaths per day, according to the model, in late April and early May.
As for hospital resources, 66 ICU beds will be needed on May 3, 2020 — which would be 22 more than currently available in the state.
Kim Deti, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health, said the state is studying several such models from different sources to determine if they might be useful.
“But at this point we are not endorsing any specific modeling tool,” she said in an email.
Deti said the department’s first priority is to use its own available data to help manage the coronavirus epidemic.
“This includes the epidemiological data from testing and follow up, much of which is provided on our website,” she said. “In addition, we are using and refining our estimates of Wyoming hospital and health care system capacity to make them more useful.”
