TULSA, Okla. — There's good news in regards to COVID-19 here in Oklahoma.
Currently, the Sooner State is ranked 45th in the nation concerning the number of new cases in the country. The state is only seeing about eight coronavirus cases per 100,000 people per day.
According to OU Health Dr. Dale Bratzler, the number of cases per day is slightly trending down.
Right now, the county seeing the newest cases is Commanche County down in southwest Oklahoma.
As far as testing for the virus goes, the total number of testing done has also decreased.
"This week, only three days worth of data so far, only 2.5 percent of all the specimens that have been tested so far are coming back positive right now," Dr. Bratzler said. "Which is very good news because we were higher at 19 percent in December."
Some more good news — hospitalizations have also plateaued. Currently, we are staying right around 200 people per day in the hospital.
As far as the vaccine is concerned, Oklahoma has administered 1.9 million doses at this point. While many are getting vaccinated, others have concerns about getting it due to distrust, effectiveness, side effects and misinformation, and social media.
Dr. Bratzler stresses that the vaccine was never intended to eliminate the need to wear a mask or practice social distancing.
Approximately half of the people above the age of 65 have now had at least one vaccine dose. As a whole, Oklahoma is doing very well at distributing the vaccine.
Trending Stories:
- Green Country parents split on COVID-19 vaccine for youth
- DOWNLOAD the 2 Works for You app for alerts
- CDC issues new guidelines to celebrate Easter amid pandemic
- FOLLOW 2 Works for You on Facebook
- Why vaccine passports could soon be required to travel
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere --
- Download our free app for Apple, Android and Kindle devices.
- Sign up for daily newsletters emailed to you
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Twitter
