Here’s the truth about the Chinese coronavirus pandemic in long-term care facilities in Oklahoma.

According to  the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH), there were 39 new cases statewide during February 11-18.

During the last week of December, there were 443 new cases.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in December listed 29 counties in Oklahoma as “red” for high numbers of nursing home cases of the coronavirus.

On February 11, only 11 counties were tagged as red.

By the end of February, almost all skilled nursing facilities in Oklahoma had at least one vaccination clinic and many had completed the three clinic process. Throughout the nation, almost 80% of long-term care facilities had at least one dose of one of the vaccines.

A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation credits the vaccinations for the drop of cases. In fact, the decline in nursing homes is sharper than the regular population.

Patients, families and friends have suffered for almost a year through mandatory quarantines of senior facilities. People couldn’t visit family members, friends and even spouses in hospitals. Weddings were postponed or the guest lists reduced. Funerals were restricted.

People made a lot of sacrifices in order to avoid getting this deadly disease. And all that time, health officials were promising that once a vaccine is developed and administered, life could start to return to normal.

But it hasn’t.

It’s time to relax those standards. That is the correct response to scientific evidence that the disease is declining.

Mental health needs to be considered as well as physical health.

Let’s start reuniting family and friends.