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Oklahoma Guard Troops To Transition Out Of COVID-19 Response

Oklahoma National Guard

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma National Guard troops who have been assisting with the state’s response to COVID-19 will begin ending their assignment this week, health officials announced Monday.

The State Health Department said in a statement that the troops will begin transitioning out of the agency beginning Thursday.

Over a 15-month deployment, Guard troops helped sanitize long-term-care facilities that were particularly hard hit during the first several months of the pandemic. Troops also helped distribute personal protective gear and transport testing specimens and supplies across the state.

Meanwhile, data from Johns Hopkins University shows Oklahoma’s seven-day rolling average of daily deaths and daily new cases have both increased over the last two weeks. The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Oklahoma increased from 120.29 new cases per day on June 12 to 196.43 new cases per day on June 26. The rolling average of daily deaths also increased during the same time period from 1.29 deaths per day to 4.29 deaths per day.

Oklahoma currently ranks 40th in the nation with just 37.9% of its population fully vaccinated, compared to a national average of 45.8%, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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