The Oklahoma State Department of Health reported on Thursday 895 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the state's total to 426,641.
Tulsa County had 122 of Thursday's cases. Its total now stands at 71,227, second to Oklahoma County's 81,276.
The state's seven-day average of new cases, which shows the trend in infections, fell from 677 to 641. The record of 4,256 was set Jan. 13.
Tulsa County's seven-day average fell from 117 to 92. It's the first time the average has been below 100 since Oct. 29. The record is 647, set Jan. 9.
The state health department has started reporting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's provisional death count in its daily updates. That count is based on death certificates entered into a vital statistics system. As of Thursday, the CDC counted 7,122 Oklahomans dead from COVID-19, an increase of 87 from Wednesday. The CDC places 1,706 of those deaths in Tulsa County. County-level data is updated weekly.
The state health department will continue to do its own investigations of COVID-19 deaths. There were no additional deaths confirmed Thursday, leaving the state's total at 4,534 Oklahomans, 723 of them Tulsa County residents.
There were 436 Oklahomans with positive COVID tests hospitalized on Wednesday evening, 21 fewer than on Tuesday. The highest number so far was 1,994 hospitalized on Jan. 5. There were 121 COVID-positive Oklahomans in intensive care units on Wednesday, 16 fewer than on Tuesday. 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, 24,103 Oklahomans have been hospitalized for COVID-19.
According to the state health department, Tulsa County had 90 COVID-positive residents hospitalized as of Wednesday evening, 10 fewer than on Tuesday. The state's reporting change does not affect regional numbers.
As of Wednesday, the state reported 14% of adult ICU beds and 14% of medical surgery beds available across all facility types. Also as of Wednesday, 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 state health department reported 765 additional patients as recovered on Thursday, bringing the total to 409,728. Patients are considered to have recovered if they did not die, are not currently hospitalized and it has been at least 14 days since their symptoms began. Symptoms have been reported to linger for several weeks for some individuals.
The state has 12,379 active cases of COVID-19, 130 more than the day before. The record is 43,163, set Jan. 11.
Tulsa County reported 116 additional patients as recovered, bringing the total to 69,103. The current number of active cases could not immediately be determined on Thursday because updated death data was not available.
The state's reported overall positive test rate was 11% on Wednesday, unchanged from Tuesday. Out of 11,432 tests reported on Wednesday, 3.6% were positive. Each positive test does not necessarily represent a unique individual.
The state used to report its cumulative positive test rate, a metric used by Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. It is calculated by dividing the number of cases by the number of negative tests plus the number of cases. As of Wednesday, that rate was 12%, unchanged from Tuesday.
Johns Hopkins uses the different rate to compare states that may track testing differently. It notes the ideal way to calculate the positivity rate is dividing the number of people who test positive by the number of people who are tested, which is how Oklahoma's overall rate is calculated.
The World Health Organization's benchmark indicating adequate testing is a 5% positive test rate.
