While many people hoped the COVID-19 pandemic would improve throughout 2021 and life would get back to normal, the fight against the novel coronavirus and its variants continued throughout the year, with an ongoing back-and-forth of progress and setbacks.

In the past year, the Wyoming Department of Health reported almost 54,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state and over 1,100 related deaths.

The first COVID-19 vaccine doses in Wyoming were administered in Dec. 2020. By the beginning of 2021, vaccines had begun to be distributed throughout the state and in Sweetwater County. Vaccines...