With the expiration of Governor Stitt’s COVID-19 emergency order, less data about the pandemic will be available to Oklahomans.
In a press conference today, Derek Pate, Chief Integrity Officer for the State Department of Health, announced a number of changes to its COVID-19 website, including a delay in reporting of positive cases.
"The active case calculation will be updated to fourteen days post-specimen collection, or symptom onset. We're removing currently hospitalized criteria that was originally part of the calculation. This will result in a noted drop in the number of active cases," said Pate.
Epidemiologist Jolianne Stone said all positive cases will still be reported to OSDH and that they will be receiving enough information to keep up with trends.
However, Commissioner Lance Frye said some emergency rules may need to be put in place to keep receiving all necessary information from healthcare providers.
"We've been in discussions about that with the Governor's office. It may require some emergency rules being put in place that require these facilities to report to us. We didn't have to do all these things with the declaration. We'll work through it," said Frye.
Changes to the data are set to take place tomorrow.