As coronavirus cases continue to climb, Oklahoma’s medical community is urging the state to consider planning for another surge.
After a stark rise in Missouri and Arkansas, northeast Oklahoma has been seeing positivity rates rise. Dr. David Kendrick, the department chair of medical informatics at the OU School of Community Medicine, says that trend has now made its way to Tulsa.
“The Tulsa community, we have, at 13.7% positivity, and you can see that rise started a few weeks ago, in contrast to Oklahoma City, where that rise really just began about a week ago, from below 2% to 5.8%,” Kendrick said.
Patti Davis, the president of the Oklahoma Hospital Association, says it might be tough to consider going back to mitigation measures.
“We need to have the conversation now. We know from last fall that the numbers increased rapidly,” Davis said.
Kendrick, Davis and others say those concerned about breakthrough infections, especially with the new variants, should continue to wear masks and consider avoiding crowds.
