The coronavirus pandemic, at times, feels like a topic that has long-since been beaten to death. Everywhere a person turns, there’s a reminder of the pandemic -- from masks being worn in public to the idea of “contactless delivery” when ordering a meal to the home. Even the big, black letters making up this piece’s headline are a reminder of what we’re all going through.
Sweetwater County is in a precarious situation when it comes to the pandemic. Yes, the positive infection numbers aren’t nearly as high as places like Natrona County or Albany County, yet they’re on the raise.
Some reading this may think to themselves, “So what? If I get it, I’ll get paid time off and I’ll come out just fine. It’s not as deadly as the flu.”
First, that claim about the flu is wrong. As of this writing, Wyoming has had 87 attributed to COVID-19, three of which involve Sweetwater County residents. The flu season last year only claimed 12 lives. The most-severe flu season, according to information from the Wyoming Department of Health resulted in 29 deaths during the 2014-2015 season. As far as getting the paid time off, there’s a lot that’s not being said.
Sweetwater County’s largest employers are becoming concerned with raising COVID-19 infection rates. With each positive confirmation, people who had close contact with that individual would then need to be quarantined and tested as well. For a crew working underground, there’s a lot of opportunities to be in close contact with other workers. Those long rides up and down the shaft, lunch and those mancar trips throughout local mines are only a couple of areas workers gather.
Supposing a large group of people in any local industry begins infect one another the result will be the same -- at local schools it would end with students being sent back home to learn and local trona mines might be forced to reduce output or even shut down production until their workforce can come back to work. That scenario would be devastating -- not only locally but nationally and internationally as well. If trona stops, everything stops. As the soda ash industry begins to recover from early impacts, we have to remember a second round of coronavirus-influenced economic shutdowns will derail that recovery.
We have to take this seriously and follow the health recommendations we’ve been given. There’s too much at stake to give in to pandemic fatigue.
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