Nearly two dozen business, nonprofit and health leaders will help plan the reopening of Tulsa’s economy after the COVID-19 threat begins to decline.
The Mayor's Economic Recovery Advisory Committee in partnership with the Tulsa Regional Chamber will look at steps other cities and states are taking to come up with a phased approach for Tulsa.
"As we start to advance between where we are today and where we were in February, there’s a lot of space in between there to navigate in a phased way that keeps your risk reduced but, on the other hand, does come with some risk," Mayor G.T. Bynum said.
California, for instance, has discussed limiting restaurants to half their capacity and checking employees’ and perhaps even diners’ temperatures.
Bynum has not proposed a date to begin lifting restrictions, and infection data and modeling will continue to be the determining factors.
"The bottom line is that as long as this virus is circulating and people are getting sick and continuing to die, we need to continue mitigation strategies. When we talk about reopening, there’s no magic date right now. We just need to continue to have the data drive that conversation," said Tulsa Health Department Executive Director Dr. Bruce Dart.
Dart said local models currently project a peak of new infections this week and maximum hospital load in early May.
