Name: Substantial COVID-19 surge projected in Oklahoma due to holidays, insufficient testing
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Substantial COVID-19 surge projected in Oklahoma due to holidays, insufficient testing

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Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily.Please subscribe to keep reading. You can cancel at any time.Loading&amp;hellp;{{title}}{{description}}{{banner}}(renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax){{tagline}}{{special_title}}{{html}}You are the owner of this article.You have permission to edit this article.© 2022 Lee EnterprisesShare ThisSubstantial COVID-19 surge projected in Oklahoma due to holidays, insufficient testingShare thisOklahoma is likely to be “really challenged” by COVID-19 during a “substantial surge” in the coming few weeks because of insufficient testing, extensive holiday travel and family gatherings.Dr. Dale Bratzler, OU’s chief COVID officer, delivered a grim outlook Tuesday during virtual news conference hosted by Healthier Oklahoma Coalition.Bratzler noted that testing supply chain shortages, labs exhausting CARES Act funding, and process lags from the holiday season have artificially depressed daily confirmed coronavirus cases.He said the state’s “very, very high” positivity rate — 1 in 4 Oklahomans who are tested are positive, according to MyHealth Access Network data — indicates the reported cases are “dramatically lower” than actual infections because mild or asymptomatic people aren’t getting tested or contact traced to slow the spread.Bratzler expects testing to ramp up again in the new year, but that won’t be the only reason for rising numbers. Record travel during the pandemic for Christmas and family gatherings will drive the trajectory upward, he said.“Most of us believe that in 10 days to 14 days we’re going to see a substantial surge in the number of cases in Oklahoma that get reported,” he said. And “10%-12% of those people are going to end up in a hospital, so we’re going to be really challenged in the next few weeks.”There were 1,995 COVID-19 hospitalizations — confirmed and suspected cases — reported Monday, topping the previous high of 1,892 reported Dec. 23. A record 504 COVID patients were in intensive care units, with the previous top mark being 487 reported Dec. 16.Considering only confirmed cases, a record 1,927 COVID patients were in hospitals Monday. The previous high was 1,836 reported Dec. 23. There were 499 patients with confirmed cases in ICUs, topping the record 481 reported three separate times earlier, most recently Dec. 21.The statewide hospital census is a point-in-time survey taken at midnight that the state releases weekday evenings, excluding holidays.The hospitalization numbers reported Tuesday remained near record levels.Tuesday marked the first day that all eight of Oklahoma’s hospital regions were in Tier 3 of 4 in the state’s surge plan, meaning 20% to 40% of inpatients in each region are confirmed COVID cases.The highest percentage reported Tuesday was Oklahoma County at 38%. Tulsa County was at 23.8%. To move up or down a tier, the region must sustain the level for three consecutive days.To cope, hospitals have placed patients in hallways and are converting surgical and other types of hospital beds into additional COVID or ICU beds.The coalition experts also emphasized that a bed isn’t a bed unless all the necessary medical personnel are available to care for patients that would be in them.Listen now and subscribe: | | | | |Dr. David Kendrick said that in the past two weeks the percentage of cases in the 65-older age group has risen, which generally indicates hospitalizations will go up.“(Hospitals) are doing what they can to manage their capacity, but it’s creating a lot of strain, to say the least,” said Kendrick, who is CEO of MyHealth Access Network, a nonprofit health information exchange based in Tulsa.Dr. George Monks said the week got off to a rough start with COVID-19 hospital records reported Monday.Monks, president of the Oklahoma State Medical Association, described the COVID-19 wave as a tremendous weight that can’t be held indefinitely by health care workers.“Certainly our thoughts and prayers are with those that are ill, those that are grieving a loss, and certainly the health care workers fighting this virus,” he said.From an economic perspective, Monks said countries that implemented strong mitigation efforts have rebounded “very well” from the spring’s shutdown fallouts.“The reason why is because workers in those areas were able to return to work safely,” Monks said. “Those countries had fewer COVID cases in the community, which was associated with higher productivity and steadier income.”He said Germany’s gross domestic product increased by 8.5% in the third quarter.In comparison, the U.S. GDP dropped 31.4% in the second quarter, Monks said. To put that into perspective, he added, the country’s GDP fell only 4.3% during the two years of the Great Recession.“Australia and New Zealand are other examples of countries that have rebounded well and they’ve had fewer cases and fewer deaths,” Monks said. “In the United States for instance, we’ve had 19 million test positive and 330,000 deaths.”Mourning COVID-19 deaths: These are some of the Oklahomans we lost in 2020Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily.{{title}}{{summary}}You don't have any notifications.Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.Topics

Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily.Please subscribe to keep reading. You can cancel at any time.Loading&amp;hellp;{{title}}{{description}}{{banner}}(renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax){{tagline}}{{special_title}}{{html}}You are the owner of this article.You have permission to edit this article.© 2022 Lee EnterprisesShare ThisSubstantial COVID-19 surge projected in Oklahoma due to holidays, insufficient testingShare thisOklahoma is likely to be “really...

Substantial COVID-19 surge projected in Oklahoma due to holidays, insufficient testing

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