Natrona County Health Broadens COVID-19 Testing Eligibility

More Natrona County residents will have access to coronavirus tests, the Casper-Natrona County Health Department announced Monday.

"The major limitation to testing in our community has been the very small number of testing supplies available," health officials said in a news release. "This ultimately forced providers to prioritize who received a test."

But local officials have been able to secure more than 2,000 test kits for Natrona County residents. State and local healthcare workers have also outfitted the Casper-Natrona County Health Department and Wyoming Medical Center so they can perform larger-scale testing.

Initially, when COVID-19 tests were more scarce, testing was prioritized for those with known COVID-19 symptoms such as cough, fever and shortness of breath along with being older in age, had known underlying health conditions, healthcare workers and first responders.

Starting Monday, testing is now available to anyone showing known COVID-19 symptoms, even if they're not in vulnerable groups.

Symptoms of COVID-19 include:

fever
cough
shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
chills
muscle pain
sore throat
new loss of taste or smell
overall flu-like illness

Anyone with more of those symptoms who wants to get tested should call the Casper-Natrona County Health Department hotline at 307-577-9892 or the Wyoming Medical Center Respiratory Screening Clinic at 307-233-0291.