Mayor G.T. Bynum issued a new executive order ending the civil emergency in the City of Tulsa related to the Chinese coronavirus.
The civil emergency officially ended on May 21.
“Following consultation with Tulsa Health Department leadership and members of the Mayor-Council COVID Working Group, I have signed an executive order that ends the civil emergency Tulsa has been under since the outset of the pandemic in our community,” Bynum said. “All of our trends continue to look good following the end of the mask ordinance. In January, over 25% of hospitalizations in Tulsa were COVID patients. On (May 19), it was 1.1%.”
On March 16, 2020, Bynum issued an executive order proclaiming the existence of a civil emergency in Tulsa and restricting events and the maximum numbers of persons that could gather to 50. In April, the mayor issued a new executive order prohibiting gatherings of any size and requiring Tulsans to stay safer at home.
The new executive order also ends the submission of COVID-19 Safety Plans to the Tulsa Health Department. This applies to any gathering, including worship service, wedding and venue operation with expected total attendance of 500 or more.
Ransonware attacks
Tulsa continues its ransomware response as crews work to get critical systems back online.
On May 6, the City’s Information Technology Department received notice that some servers were actively communicating with a known threat site and a ransomware attack was initiated on several city systems. A cybersecurity incident response team was assembled to assess the threat and disconnected the affected servers. The team immediately began isolating the affected systems and the attack moved quickly through the network, prompting the team to shut down all services to halt the attack.
City officials hired an outside incident response team to assist with threat assessment as the investigation began. Forensic data was handed over to that team and to law enforcement for further investigation. The ransomware attack remains an ongoing investigation.
As a result, city departments resorted to manual business practices until the problem is solved. Officials expect some systems to come back online in the coming days and weeks, with other systems expected to take longer.
When there are updates to our public facing systems such as our online and electronic billing systems, the city will alert the public immediately. Officials continue to ask residents to wait until its electronic payment systems are restored before paying their utility bills.
Tulsa Parks’ online recreation systems continue to be unavailable due to the ransomware attack. Residents should contact centers directly by phone or visit a community center in person to enroll in recreation programs and Summer Day Camps. Tulsa is facing a shortage of lifeguard applicants.