June 1, 2020
By News Director Jared Atha
Two area counties have seen a slight increase of COVID-19 cases over the weekend.
As the state of Oklahoma enters phase 3 of Governor Kevin Stitt’s reopening plan, Custer and Beckham Counties have seen additional cases of the virus emerge. Custer County currently has 8 active cases while Beckham County has 4. Elsewhere, Jackson County has 5 active cases, Kiowa County has 2 and Washita has 1.
There was an increase of active cases statewide as well. Currently the state has 728 active cases of the virus, an increase of 48 when compared to Sunday.
Some good news – State officials reported that there were no additional deaths in the past 24 hours due to COVID-19. The state’s death count currently stands at 334.
The Oklahoma State Department of Health announced Monday that its COVID-19 data tracker, located on their website, will continue reporting active and recovered COVID-19 cases by county only, as permitted by State law, and the agency will no longer be able to publish COVID-19 data by city, zip code, or by long-term care and nursing home facility due to the State’s Catastrophic Emergency Declaration expiring on Sunday.
State health officials and the office of Governor Kevin Stitt say they are actively exploring additional legal opinions and solutions to ensure the public, the medical community, and elected leaders can access relevant COVID-19 data that will allow for quick and effective decision-making while Oklahoma awaits a treatment or vaccine to mute the novel virus.
The Legislature first granted the Governor’s request for a Catastrophic Emergency Health declaration on April 7, and the declaration was later extended until the end of May.
Since the Catastrophic Emergency Declaration went into effect, the number of Oklahomans in the hospital for COVID-19 has declined by roughly 65%, the weekly rate of deaths related to COVID-19 has declined by 56%, and the percentage of positive cases has declined to an all-time low of 3.7%.
