Two Wyoming State Hospital patients have tested positive for coronavirus after being moved to the Evanston facility from Casper, the Wyoming Department of Health announced Friday.
The department, in a news release, said the two adult females were transferred from a Casper facility “that has been at the center of a Natrona County COVID-19 outbreak.”
A cluster of cases linked to the Wyoming Behavioral Institute has accounted for most of Natrona County’s coronavirus cases.
The department said one of the patients is still at the Wyoming State Hospital, while the other is being treated at an out-of-state hospital.
Neither of the patients showed any signs of the illness when they were picked up in Casper, the department said. However, both were tested when they arrived at the Evanston facility and were held in a quarantine area.
“We have been preparing for the possibility that the hospital might see coronavirus patients for quite some time,” said Bill Rein, administrator for the State Hospital.
Rein added the hospital was aware of the outbreak at the Casper facility before the patients were transferred, so officials were ready for their arrival.
The two cases had not been added to the Health Department’s official coronavirus case count by Friday morning, when the count stood at 296.