Coronavirus Found In Wyoming Wastewater, Including At Old Faithful

The coronavirus has been detected in 11 sites across Wyoming, including Old Faithful.

August 19, 20201 min read

Old faithful scaled
(Cowboy State Daily Staff)

The coronavirus has been detected in wastewater from 11 sites across Wyoming, including Yellowstone National Park.

The Wyoming Public Health Laboratory has found that wastewater in areas including in Sheridan, Casper, Laramie and two sites in Yellowstone National Park (including Old Faithful) showed some concentration of the virus.

Many of the locations showed a prevalence under 1%, such as Old Faithful (0.2%), Laramie (0.1%) and Rock Springs (0.8%). However, Jackson showed a prevalence of 2.3%, the highest on the chart.

For each of the sites, the lab has broken the data down into three charts: modeled prevalence, threshold cycle and sample concentration.

  • Modeled prevalence shows the estimate of the trend in the percent of people that are infectious in each community. However, the lab noted there were “a lot” of assumptions factoring into the estimate and the numbers “need to be taken with a grain of salt.”
  • Threshold cycle shows the raw data from the lab, showing if there might have been a higher initial concentration of viral RNA in the wastewater sample.
  • Sample concentration translates the raw cycle threshold numbers.
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