By The Wyoming News Exchange

The deaths of another 21 Wyoming residents have been attributed to the coronavirus, the Wyoming Department of Health announced Thursday.

However, the news came as Health Department figures showed a drop of more than 270 in the number of active cases with a surge in recoveries of more than 1,000.

The deaths bring to 176 the number of Wyoming residents whose deaths were linked to the virus.

The Health Department said nine of the people whose deaths were reported Thursday came from Natrona County, six women and three men.

Of the nine, six were residents of long-term care facilities. The deaths occurred late last month and earlier this month.

Other victims included three Laramie County men, two of whom died earlier this month and the other who died late last month; three Fremont County residents, two older women and one older man; an older Albany County woman who died last month; an older Big Horn County woman who died last month; an older Carbon County man who died within the last week; An older Sweetwater County man and woman who died earlier this month, and an older Sheridan County man who died earlier this month.

Meanwhile, for the second time since early October, the state saw a decline in the number of people sick with the disease as the number of reported recoveries outpaced the number of new cases.

The Department of Health, in its daily coronavirus update, said 1,152 reports of recoveries of people with either confirmed or probable cases were received Thursday, while the number of new confirmed cases totaled 739 and the number of new probable cases totaled 155.

The result was a reduction of 279 in active cases from Wednesday’s cases, leaving the total number of active cases in the state at 11,089.

Natrona County had 2,359 active cases; Laramie County had 1,593; Albany had 1,563; Campbell had 1,387; Fremont had 705; Sheridan had 384; Park had 359; Sweetwater had 350; Goshen had 324; Uinta had 323; Lincoln had 241; Teton had 208; Platte had 194; Carbon had 177; Weston had 176; Johnson had 128; Converse had 123; Sublette and Washakie had 107; Crook had 99; Big Horn had 92, and Hot Springs and Niobrara had 45.

Active cases are determined by adding the total confirmed and probable coronavirus cases diagnosed since the illness first surfaced in Wyoming on March 12, subtracting the number of recoveries during the same period among patients with both confirmed and probable cases and taking into account the number of deaths attributed to the illness.

The increase in recoveries meant that since the first case of coronavirus was detected in Wyoming in mid-March, 14,904 of those infected have recovered.

The number of confirmed cases seen since the pandemic began, meanwhile, stood at 22,489 on Thursday with 739 new cases reported in 22 of the state’s counties. Laramie County saw the highest number of new cases at 217.

The number of probable cases, meanwhile, went up by 155 on Thursday to total 3,680 since March.