OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – As college students put together to move again to class this month, the variety of COVID-19 instances throughout Oklahoma continues to climb.
On Monday, knowledge from the Oklahoma State Division of Well being reveals that the state has had 486,232 confirmed instances of COVID-19 since March of 2023.
That’s a rise of 5,597 cases since Friday, July 30.
“We have seen the variety of new instances a day in Oklahoma double up to now 10 days; greater than 1,600 instances a day proper now and hospitalizations have gone up significantly additionally; 739 folks within the hospital as of yesterday. We’ve got some actual considerations proper now,” mentioned Dr. Dale Bratzler, OU’s Chief COVID officer.
Whereas about 45% of Oklahomans are vaccinated towards COVID-19, officers say that is not sufficient to cease the unfold of the highly-contagious delta variant.
Lately, the CDC updated its guidelines to encourage fully vaccinated Americans to put on masks indoors in areas the place transmission of the virus is excessive.
“I feel with the delta virus, which is very contagious, and we now know it could actually infect people who find themselves totally vaccinated and people folks can truly unfold the virus. It’s totally prudent to put on a masks anytime you are in an indoor setting proper now,” Dr. Bratzler mentioned.
As instances and hospitalizations rise, well being consultants say they’re involved that sufferers could quickly be despatched elsewhere as Oklahoma hospitals attain capability.
“We had a dialog final night time. There are hospital beds. A part of the actual drawback we’re coping with proper now could be a nursing scarcity. So despite the fact that we’ve beds we may probably open up, we don’t have nurses to employees all these beds as a result of we noticed a lot attrition by the actual peak of the pandemic in January and February,” he mentioned.
Now, mother and father are weighing their choices as youngsters are set to move again to class this month.
“Let us take a look at the truth. Children under the age of 12 cannot be vaccinated. Even should you have a look at the 12 to 17-year age group in faculties that may be vaccinated, solely about 14 to fifteen% are totally vaccinated. So we’ve a extremely contagious variant, we’re gonna convey college students collectively that principally aren’t vaccinated, indoor settings, the possibility that the virus spreads is kind of excessive. The mask is one of the most effective ways we have to prevent the spread of the virus,” he said.
Specialists consider this wave’s peak will seemingly hit within the fall.
“We at all times fear about variants mutating. I am extra apprehensive about perhaps an Indonesia variant or one other variant that comes out some other place on the planet then is available in to the US. Most of our fashions proper now present that we could peak with this delta variant someplace late September, October in that neighborhood. So we’ll have to attend and see what occurs, however it’s spreading very quickly,” he mentioned.
