Less people are getting COVID-19 now than at peak times in Oklahoma but those who do are more likely to go to the hospital.
Dr. David Kendrick is the CEO of nonprofit MyHealth Access Network. He spoke yesterday at a Healthier Oklahoma press conference.
“The chance that people will be admitted if they have a positive test is hovering around 28% for all age groups.
More importantly, when we break this out by age group, what we see is that the 65 and up group, half of those patients who get COVID-19 at this point are being admitted.”
Hospitalizations are slightly up across the state according to the Oklahoma State Department of Health.
Public health officials are still working out what connection this has to the possibly more severe Delta variant that’s now thought to be causing the rise in cases in northeast Oklahoma.
The state’s variant identification has been lagging. Last week the state health department put out an emergency message to labs and providers asking for positive samples to genetically sequence.
A spokesperson from OSDH confirmed some samples have arrived at the public health lab though an exact number wasn’t given.
University of Oklahoma Chief COVID Officer Dr. Dale Bratzler said, regardless, he expects cases to expand out from the northeast.
“Now we’re gonna see it march down I-44 and come into Oklahoma,” said Bratzler.
Other parts of Oklahoma are relatively quiet at the moment. The Oklahoma City area has a test positivity rate of 2%, which is low compared to the Tulsa area that’s at about 6%.
Bratzler said fully vaccinated people will get infected with Delta variant. He pointed to Israel, which has a high vaccination rate but is also seeing a rise in cases. He said people should consider wearing masks.
“I know nobody wants to do that, but masks are effective against all variants.”
Two dose vaccines are 88% effective against the Delta variant.