Spike in the Panhandle is traced to processing plant
Most of the people in Oklahoma who get the coronavirus – more than 77% – have recovered while about 5% die from the disease.
The number of people recovering is outpacing the number of infections.
As of May 25, there were 6,090 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 in Oklahoma. There have been 313 total deaths in the state and 4,714 have recovered. Last week, there were 169 new cases and 172 recovered.
In Tulsa County, the recovery rate is about 79%.
As of May 24, there have been 926 cases in Tulsa County with 44 deaths and 725 recoveries.
In the City of Tulsa, there have been 672 cases with 29 deaths and 512 recoveries. That’s about the same as the county figures.
In Oklahoma City, there have been 957 cases with 51 deaths and 781 recoveries. In Oklahoma County, there have been 1,208 cases with 56 deaths and 1,008 recoveries.
An outbreak in a pig processing plant Guymon in Texas County in the Panhandle has produced 886 cases with 493 recoveries and five deaths. In Guymon, there have been 739 cases with five deaths and 389 recoveries.
If you subtract Texas County from the state totals, the recovery rate is right at 81%. If you subtract Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Guymon from the number of cases and number of recoveries, more than 82% of the victims in the rest of the state have recovered.
“We have what they term a ‘hotspot’ or an ‘outbreak’ of COVID-19 in Guymon,” said Terri Salisbury, Oklahoma State Department of Health regional director. “We are utilizing the National Guard to assist us, because we have more than 600 cases.”
As of May 19, Guymon had 57.6 cases per 1,000 residents. Most were traced back to the Seaboard Foods pork processing plant, which is classified as an essential business and produces roughly 4.2 million pounds of pork products per day while employing about 2,700 employees from the county and surrounding states.
“You all are on the frontlines of the fight, and this is where the most asymmetrical risk is,” Oklahoma Army National Guard Brig. Gen. Thomas Mancino, the commander of the Oklahoma Governor’s Task Force, said to Guymon healthcare workers. “We could be at the beginning of a surge that overwhelms the system and capacity here, more than likely requiring a regional response instead of just a state response.”
Doubts about Tulsa State Fair
The Tulsa State Fair is schedule to start on October 1 but the coronavirus could impact that timing and how the fair is operated.
County Commissioner Karen Keith expects an update in July.
“The fair, there are some 600 contracts that are signed,” Keith said. “These concessionaires do everything from lava lamps to corndogs. We have 14,000 animals. We are just doing everything to make sure our fair if we are able to open it, will be as safe a place as anybody would want to go.”
County officials are watching fairs in other cities – including Oklahoma City, which is from September 17-27 – to see how they adapt.
Tulsa County Update
The Tulsa County Parks staff are allowing restricted practices at county ballfields. LaFortune Parks Community Center opened on May 15, with limitations.
The two pools at LaFortune Park and South County are closed for the summer. The County Parks Department is finishing up outlining procedures to start summer camps at Community Centers, Golf Courses and Case Tennis Center.
City Employees Return to Work June 1
Starting June 1, most City administrative employees who were working from home will return to work under certain guidelines.
When returning to work, all City staff will be wearing cloth face coverings when within 6 feet of one another. Employees will get their temperature checked before they start their shift and at the end of their shift.
City Hall visitors will also be asked to wear cloth face coverings and have their temperature checked by Security before entering the building.
Recycling N95 masks
Oklahoma is getting a new decontamination system for masks developed by Battelle, Columbus, Ohio.
Battelle Critical Care Decontamination System is a self-contained, mobile system that uses high concentration, vapor phase hydrogen peroxide to decontaminate N95 masks. Battelle was awarded a contract by the Defense Logistics Agency for the U.S Department of Health and Human Services and FEMA to provide N95 decontamination at no charge to health care providers.
The system will maximize Oklahoma’s PPE stockpile, which includes approximately 181,000 N95 masks. Up to 10,000 masks can be decontaminated at a time. The process takes about 2.5 hours per batch and health care workers can expect to have cleaned masks back within approximately 72 hours of receipt at the processing facility. An N95 mask can be decontaminated up to 20 times without degraded performance.
The Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management (OEM), has acquired a location for the system in Muskogee.
A number of states have successfully implemented the system in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and OSDH is working with health care officials in Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana to glean best practices for deploying the system locally.
Only N95 masks that do not contain cellulose can be processed at this time. Decontamination of KN95 masks and other forms of PPE (gowns, gloves, etc.) is currently prohibited.