Oklahoma ranks 50th in the nation for percent of COVID-19 test samples being sequenced to detect virus variants of concern, according to data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Oklahoma has sequenced 0.18% of the positive tests that we've seen coming through on the state level," said Dr. Mary Clarke, president of the Oklahoma State Medical Association, on a Tuesday press briefing conducted virtually by the Healthier Oklahoma Coalition.
"We are last in testing for these variants. We are number 50 in the country," Clarke said. "Right now, yes, they are testing, but at a quite low number. And there are lots of reasons for that, and I couldn't even begin to probably make comments on why that is, but I know it's pretty complicated."
The public relations firm Saxum, contracted by the Oklahoma State Department of Health to handle COVID-related media inquiries, did not provide a comment on or explanation for the low rate of sequencing when contacted multiple times Thursday.
In February, then-state epidemiologist Dr. Jared Taylor said in a news release announcing that the state would be ramping up virus sequencing that, "Sequencing viruses is crucial to our understanding of a disease and ability to mount a response to it."
Dr. Michael Kayser, then-director of the state's public health lab in the wake of its abrupt move from Oklahoma City to Stillwater, said in the same release, "We are excited to get our sequencing capability fully operational, as COVID-19 variants are spreading rapidly throughout our global communities."
Kayser has since submitted his resignation, while Taylor has been replaced as state epidemiologist by Jolianne Stone, the fourth individual to occupy the role during the pandemic.
Officials from the CDC and National Institutes of Health, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, have warned of danger from the Delta variant of the virus, which wreaked havoc in India and earlier this month caused the United Kingdom to reimplement more stringent lockdown restrictions.
40 cases of the Delta variant have been confirmed in Oklahoma, according to OSDH.
