The Oklahoma State Department of Health reported 449,266 total cases of COVID-19 in the state on Wednesday.
The 1,624 new cases reported over the past week were down 55 from the number reported the week before.
Tulsa County data is now being updated on a weekly basis, with numbers reflecting the previous Sunday through Saturday. At last count, Tulsa County had 74,382 cases, up 333 over the past week. Tulsa County's total is second to Oklahoma County's 86,408.
The state's seven-day average of new cases, which shows the trend in infections, was 232 as of Wednesday, down from 240 the week before. The record of 4,256 was set Jan. 13. It has remained under 500 since March 17 if roughly 1,300 backlogged cases added April 7 are excluded.
Tulsa County's seven-day average rose from 39 to 48. The record is 647, set Jan. 9. It has remained below 100 since March 4.
The state health department reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's provisional death count in its updates. That count is based on death certificates entered into a vital statistics system and is updated on weekdays. As of Wednesday, the CDC counted 8,301 Oklahomans dead from COVID-19, an increase of 58 over the past week. According to the CDC, 10 Tulsa County residents died from COVID-19 in the past week, bringing the total to 1,999.
The state is still carrying out its own investigations of COVID-19 deaths and updates that number weekly. The state-confirmed total is 6,832, with 1,044 in Tulsa County.
The state health department reports more than 2.7 million total doses of vaccines have been administered, with 88,039 given in the past week, a 34% decrease from the week before. More than 1 million Oklahomans have now completed a vaccination series.
There were 182 Oklahomans with positive COVID tests hospitalized on Tuesday evening, the latest data available, 10 fewer than at the same time last week. The highest number so far was 1,994 hospitalized on Jan. 5. There were 53 COVID-positive Oklahomans in intensive care units on Tuesday, four fewer than at the same time last week. KWGS is basing hospitalization and ICU bed numbers on the total across all types of facilities. The state changed to reporting just acute care hospitals but still gives numbers for focus, rehabilitation and tribal facilities.
Over the course of the pandemic, 26,014 Oklahomans have been hospitalized for COVID-19.
According to the state health department, Tulsa County had 48 COVID-positive residents hospitalized as of Tuesday evening, down nine from the same time last week. The state's reporting change does not affect regional numbers.
As of Tuesday, the state reported 15% of adult ICU beds and 17% of medical surgery beds available across all facility types. As of Monday, all of the state's hospital regions were at tier one of a four-tier hospital surge plan, meaning less than 15% of patients have tested positive for COVID for at least three consecutive days. The OKC region is the only region above 5%.
The state reported 10,248 active cases of COVID-19 in a Tuesday evening report, down two over the past week. The record is 43,163, set Jan. 11. Despite the change in death reporting, active cases are being reported as total cases less patients considered recovered and deaths confirmed by the state health department.
The state's reported overall positive test rate was 10.1% on Tuesday, unchanged from the same time last week. Over the past week, 3.3% of 40,955 reported tests were positive, up 0.9 percentage points from the week before. There were nearly 5,400 fewer tests done in the past week, and it was the third straight week the total number of tests declined. Each positive test does not necessarily represent a unique individual.
The World Health Organization's benchmark indicating adequate testing is a 5% positive test rate.
Cotton County is the only county at the orange level on the state's COVID alert map, indicating the highest risk of transmission. That number is down two from last week. There are 64 counties, including Tulsa County, at the yellow level, up five from last week. There are now 12 counties at the green risk level, five fewer than last week.
Tulsa County's rate of new cases per 100,000 population rose 19.7% since it was last reported, going from 6.1 to 7.3. The highest rate of new cases was in Cotton County, which had a new case rate of 32.8, up 556% from the week before. The state health department changed its reporting of alert map data from Fridays to Wednesdays.
The orange level starts at 14.3 new cases per 100,000. Regardless of transmission rates, counties are not classified at red, the alert map's highest level, unless COVID patients account for 40% of the staffed acute care hospital beds in that county's state hospital region.
Just 14 counties have not yet hit 10% of their population testing positive for the coronavirus. Alfalfa County leads the state with 20.3% of residents testing positive to date. It's the only county so far to break the 20% level.
In Tulsa County, 11.4% of residents have tested positive to date, 0.6 percentage points higher than in Oklahoma County.
