As of Tuesday, Oklahoma had tested for COVID-19 in 265 nursing homes with the goal of testing all residents and staff in the long term care facilities to be tested by the end of the week.
At the same time, the Stitt Administration began taking applications from cities and counties for the CARES FORWARD reimbursement program.
More than 35,800 residents and staff in long term care facilities have been tested in May. Results show 3.18 percent of the tests came back positive. That meant the virus has infected 714 residents and 428 staff members.
Ninety-one facilities have had at least one positive test for COVID-19. Ninety-eight percent of those facilities were following CDC guidelines. The others were provided with help to get into compliance.
“Thanks to hardworking public employees and health care professionals across the state, we were able to quadruple our overall COVID-19 testing in May,” said Stitt. “They quickly and successfully adapted to this remarkable increase in workload, and we are in the midst of improving our infrastructure and expanding staffing to ensure we can maintain this momentum.”
As of Tuesday, 94 cities and counties had submitted applications for reimbursement through the CARES FORWARD program.
“The State has put into place a sound platform to thoroughly review and quickly process reimbursement needs from cities and counties impacted by COVID-19,” said State COO John Budd. “We have 94 cities and counties who have already engaged with the State, and we encourage all others to reach out to the State as soon as possible to begin discussions on how these federal funds can support their services impacted by the novel virus.”
Municipalities and counties will be allowed to submit applications for reimbursement toward COVID-19 expenses through the 10th of each month. The rest of the month will be used to review the applications. The CARES Act passed by Congress provided $1.2 billion for the program.
CARES FORWARD will run through January 2021.
