Oklahoma Doctor Says Virus Appears to be Plateauing in State

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Coronavirus infections in Oklahoma appear to be plateauing, although new cases continue at a higher rate than six months ago, a health official said Wednesday.

The seven-day rolling average of cases of just more than 1,200 has remained about the same for the past week, said Dr. Dale Bratzler, who heads the University of Oklahoma’s coronavirus response. The 861 COVID-19 hospitalizations reported by the Oklahoma State Department of Health is nearly 50% lower than the more than 1,500 hospitalizations reported in early September.

However, Oklahoma is recording an average of about 31 new cases daily per 100,000 population, 10 times more than in early June when infections were waning, Bratzler said.

“I looked at our data from June 7 and we were down to three cases per 100,000 population per day, so we’re still at a 10-fold higher rate of new cases per day right now,” according to Bratzler.