Mayors of Tulsa, Norman and Oklahoma City in recent days have issued, or said they will issue, orders reinstating some restrictions, such as requiring employees to wear masks in bars and restaurants and decreasing capacity limits in some facilities.
Mabel Garcia went to the only emergency room in Texas County, Oklahoma, which didn’t have a drug for heart attacks and strokes. She was airlifted to a larger hospital that gave her the drug she needed, but it was too late. She suffered brain damage.
Oklahoma voters narrowly approved an expansion of Medicaid on Tuesday after years of local political opposition and the governor’s own claim that it would result in budget cuts to core services next year.
On Tuesday, the state reported 374 Oklahomans were hospitalized. The number has been trending briskly upward, up nearly 90 percent compared to June 19 when there were 197 hospitalizations.
The Frontier is tracking confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, in an effort to inform people where the virus is spreading.
“We are so far away from talking about this, again we just have to learn how to live with it,” Stitt said Thursday about implementing new social distancing restrictions amid a rise in coronavirus cases in Oklahoma.
As Oklahoma for several days has recorded highs in new coronavirus cases, local leaders and health experts in the largest cities say it’s a “critical” time for the state as they look to curb cases and preserve hospital capacity.
Emails from cities across Oklahoma show fear, confusion, and some defiance and dismissiveness early on as the coronavirus began to take hold in the state.
