Today In Wyoming's History: April 3. Governor Gordon Extends the Emergency and Puts In Place a Travelers Quarantine.

I have a pending thread on things dealing with the Coronavirus epidemic, including things that have really surprised me, but it's long and I haven't finished it yet, so I'll only simply note here that the public tolerance for restrictions, given as Americans generally hate restrictions of all types, continues to really surprise me.

Along those lines, lots of states have "shelter in place" orders going on now, with those orders generally being tolerated fairly well.  There's been a lot of speculation the past week if Wyoming would issue one or not, given as the state's medicos are strongly urging it.  Yesterday, the Governor indicated that he wouldn't, as our post on a our companion blog for yesterday, Today In Wyoming's History: April 3, 2020, noted:

2020  Governor Gordon extended his Coronavirus emergency orders through April 30, and broadened their scope.  His announcement stated:

Governor, State Health Officer extend statewide Public Health Orders through April 30

Governor also Directs 14-Day Quarantine for Travelers Arriving in Wyoming from another State or Country

CHEYENNE – Governor Mark Gordon and State Health Officer Dr. Alexia Harrist have extended the three existing statewide health orders through April 30 to slow community transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19) and protect lives.

The Governor continues to emphatically state that people need to stay home whenever possible to prevent or slow the spread of the virus. These orders are meant to enforce that direction through April. Specifically, the current orders closing public places including schools, prohibiting gatherings of 10 people or more in a single room or confined space (including outdoors) and closing bars, restaurants, coffee shops and some personal services businesses will continue through April 30. Food establishments can continue to provide delivery services, but carry-out service is now required to take place curbside.

“The decision to extend these orders was made to save lives and keep people at home,” Governor Gordon said. “We are seeing community transmission of COVID-19 occur around the state and we will continue to see more confirmed cases in the weeks to come. This action will help lower the rate of transmission and protect both our healthcare system and the healthcare workers we all rely on.”

The Governor has also issued a directive requiring any individual coming to Wyoming from another state or country for a non-work-related purpose to immediately self-quarantine for 14 days. For visits fewer than 14 days, that individual must self-quarantine for the duration of the visit. The directive is intended to discourage out-of-state visitation during the pandemic and reduce the spread of COVID-19.

“We know that travel from another state or country is a source of COVID-19 infections in Wyoming," Governor Gordon said. “Visitors from neighboring states have strained the resources of many Wyoming communities so we are asking them to do the right thing to protect the health of our citizens and the resources of our rural healthcare facilities.”

Dr. Harrist noted Wyoming continues to see community spread of COVID-19 and social distancing measures remain the most effective means to slow the spread of the virus.

“We need everyone to stay home as much as possible,” Harrist said. “Anyone can spread this disease, even if they don’t yet realize they are ill.”

The updated orders and the Governor's directive can be found on the Governor's website. The directive is also attached. 

The actual order stated:

Be that as it may, this order contains some real surprises in some ways, the most interesting being that it does impose a fourteen day quarantine for people entering and remaining in the state, save for people entering it for employment reasons.

This order isn't finding favor, we'd note, with some county health officials who are threatening to order their counties quarantined.  If that's going to happen, it'll likely happen early next week.  It seems that those officials were waiting to see if their suggestions would be taken by Governor Gordon or not.  Now it is clear they haven't been, so it remains to be seen if they'll abstain or argue for county action instead.