All age groups except children have hit at least a temporary peak in COVID infections in Oklahoma according to a health information sharing network in the state.
Dr. David Kendrick is CEO of MyHealth Access Network and the chair of Medical Informatics at University of Oklahoma. He said according to MyHealth that gathers data in real-time and looks at an estimated two-thirds of COVID tests statewide, most age groups peaked around Aug. 16 except children aged 5 to 17.
“What we see in the school-aged kids is they just blew right past that and keep going up. We’ve had a rising, rising case count in school-aged kids,” said Kendrick. "I know we've all been watching the masking policies and the debate about what to do with school."
As for whether the decline will remain for older people, Kendrick said it depends on the emergence of variants.
“What we don’t have nailed down is how often these variants occur. To me, the question I don’t hear discussed as much but I’m sure it is in scientific circles, is what is the progression rate to new variants?”
As the virus continues to change, more peaks might be seen. That’s why it’s important to have data.
“I would say among the most important public health things that we should be doing right now is we should be expanding our sewer shed testing programs, and we should definitely be doing variant testing. Because I think that will be the first opportunity to pick up a new variant in time to get ahead of it,” said Kendrick.
Oklahoma has struggled with its variant testing since it moved the public health lab from Oklahoma City to Stillwater during the pandemic.