Before Wednesday, Tulsa County had never reported an increase of more than 200 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in a single day.
Now, it's passed that mark two days in a row.
Tulsa County reported a confirmed total number of cases of 2,949 on Thursday, a day-over-day increase of 207 patients, making up just under half of the statewide increase of 438.
Three new deaths were reported statewide, all women over the age of 65 and all in Oklahoma County. There were no reported additional deaths in Tulsa County. Oklahoma County has now surpassed Tulsa County to have the most confirmed fatalities in the state.
At a Wednesday press conference, Tulsa Health Department Director Dr. Bruce Dart painted a dire picture of the county's situation.
"I said all along it's important to follow the data," Dart said. "Numbers for the month of June are growing in the state. We are seeing those same steep upward trends here in Tulsa County."
A plurality of new cases confirmed in the week of June 14th-20th, over 40%, Dart said, were patients in the 18-to-35 age group. That demographic's increase in hospitalizations was also 133% over that time period. About 1 in 4 hospitalization in Tulsa County is a patient in the 18-to-35 age group.
"In the early stages of this pandemic, everyone took our advice very seriously," Dart said. "We flattened the curve. We avoided surges in our health care systems."
"But after months of the same messaging, the data is starting to show us that individuals are becoming lax regarding public health recommendations to protect yourself."
"We knew we'd see an increase in cases as our local economy reopened, but this has been higher than projected and it's concerning if we continue this upward trend of new cases," Dart said.
