Stories

"We are releasing this information on long term care facilities in the hope that is can provide relief for those with family members with loved ones who reside there."

The craft store chain announced it was ending emergency leave pay for employees and suspending the use of company-provided paid time off benefits during the furloughs in order “to allow our furloughed employees" to take full advantage of the pandemic unemployment benefits.

While the Oklahoma governor may lack a political worldview, his mantra of fighting the virus through “personal responsibility” is in line with his own history. 

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.

The Oklahoma State Department of Health released the numbers for the first time in a report on Thursday evening.

“These two sovereign nations have knowingly, and for the specific purpose of causing harm to the United States of America, engaged in ‘dumping’ of oil by flooding the market,” Stitt wrote in the letter.

Gov. Kevin Stitt is expected to order all public schools to continue paying support staff who have lost the ability to work due to the statewide closure of school buildings. 

Oklahoma Secretary of Commerce and Workforce Development Sean Kouplen warned some employers may face difficulty rehiring lower-wage workers, since an upcoming increase in unemployment benefits could mean a significant income bump.

Asked whether the number of positive cases would be lower had the initial March 24 order extended to all counties, Stitt responded “I don’t think there is any way to speculate on that.”

“The more testing we do the more we understand what’s going on out in our communities across our state. It helps us to better look into the future through modeling of that data.”