SUBLETTE COUNTY – Registration for COVID-19 vaccinations has opened into Phase 1C in Sublette County.

According to the Wyoming Department of Health, groups in Phase 1C include individuals who live in group settings, such as prisons or jails, individuals experiencing homelessness, individuals living in college dormitories, and critical infrastructure workers.

During the weekly Sublette COVID Response update, Public Health nurse Robin Carnes said Sublette County would likely be most impacted by the critical infrastructure workers category. That includes those who work in critical manufacturing, energy, legal, communications and information technology, financial services, chemical workers and other community or government-based operations and essential functions. That applies to water and wastewater logistics workers, unvaccinated law enforcement officers, public safety workers, remaining education workers, food and agriculture workers, housing and real estate services, hazardous material workers and public health workers who haven’t already been vaccinated.

Carnes said farmers and ranchers do apply to the food and agriculture worker criteria.

Those who haven’t been vaccinated and apply to previous phases can still register.

“As the pandemic has continued we have seen that people with certain health challenges are clearly more likely to become severely ill when they are infected with COVID-19,” Alexia Harrist, state health officer and epidemiologist with WDH, said. “These vaccines can help protect these individuals.”

Certain groups of frontline essential workers who interact with the public and are unable to consistently physically distance from others are also listed among Phase 1B recipients. Vaccinations for those groups will be, according to the WDH, mostly arranged through employers who should expect to be contacted by local public health agencies to schedule vaccinations for their workers.

Carnes said, as of Wednesday, 1,682 Moderna vaccines have been administered in Sublette County (1,205 first doses, 477 second doses) with another 260 scheduled on Thursday. Most of the feedback she’s received from the vaccine involves sore arms and fatigue. She’s heard of some getting chills and fever for a day with a second dose, which she said is a good sign.

“That means your immune system built up a good response to the vaccine,” she said.”

Carnes also confirmed she’s had residents call the Public Health Office regarding vaccination scams in the area. She reiterated that Public Health is the only entity administering COVID vaccines in Sublette County and it does not take any financial or personal information aside from a name and birthday. Any calls asking for more information should be reported to the sheriff’s office.

Carnes congratulated Sublette County on its low transmission of the coronavirus, which stood at just two active cases at the time of her update.