The Oklahoma State Department of Health reported 451,473 total cases of COVID-19 in the state on Wednesday.
The 930 new cases reported over the past week were down 27% 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 74,893 cases. The 209 new cases last week represented a 31% drop from the prior week. Tulsa County's case total is second to Oklahoma County's 87,025.
The state's seven-day average of new cases, which shows the trend in infections, was 133 as of Wednesday, down from 182 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 fell from 43 to 30. 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 8,386 Oklahomans dead from COVID-19, an increase of 43 over the past week. According to the CDC, nine Tulsa County residents died from COVID-19 in the past week, bringing the total to 2,025.
The state is still carrying out its own investigations of COVID-19 deaths and updates that number weekly. The state-confirmed total is 6,918, with 1,061 in Tulsa County.
The state health department reports more than 2.8 million total doses of vaccines have been administered. A weekly epidemiology report giving the number of doses administered in the past week was not available at the time this story was published. Almost 1.3 million Oklahomans have now completed a vaccination series.
The state has changed its hospitalization reporting to a three-day average. There reported average on Wednesday was 120 Oklahomans with positive COVID tests hospitalized, down 32 from the same time a week before. The highest number so far was 1,994 hospitalized on Jan. 5. There were 30 COVID-positive Oklahomans in intensive care units in the latest three-day average, down 15 from the week prior. KWGS is basing hospitalization and ICU bed numbers on the total across all types of facilities. The state reports just acute care hospitals but still gives numbers for focus, rehabilitation and tribal facilities.
Over the course of the pandemic, 26,244 Oklahomans have been hospitalized for COVID-19.
According to the state health department, Tulsa County had a three-day average of 36 COVID-positive residents hospitalized as of Wednesday, down 19 from the week prior.
The state no longer reports its testing numbers since Gov. Kevin Stitt withdrew his COVID-19 emergency declaration on May 4.
There are no counties at the orange level on the state's COVID alert map, indicating the highest risk of transmission. That's down one from last week. There are 40 counties, including Tulsa County, at the yellow level, down 11 from last week. There are now 37 counties at the green risk level, 12 more than last week.
Tulsa County's rate of new cases per 100,000 population fell 31.8% since it was last reported, going from 6.6 to 4.5. The highest rate of new cases was in Okfuskee County, which had a new case rate of 8.3, up 245.8% 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 13 counties have not yet hit 10% of their population testing positive for the coronavirus. Alfalfa County leads the state with 20.2% of residents testing positive to date. Alfalfa County is the only county so far to break the 20% level.
In Tulsa County, 11.5% of residents have tested positive to date, 0.6 percentage points higher than in Oklahoma County.
