On Tuesday, Governor Kevin Stitt and his Solution Task Force announced the state would begin using saliva based testing and a new focus on preventing the spread of COVID-19 in long-term care facilities. Stitt also reiterated the Open Up and Recovery Safely Plan is a phased plan that depends on benchmarks to go forward.
“Last Friday, many parts of our state started to safely and responsibly reopen. When we announced the Open Up and Recover Safely plan, we made it clear that we will make decisions based on the data here in our state. The data continues to show we can safely proceed with Phase 1 of our plan starting this Friday, May 1,” said Stitt during Tuesday’s press conference.
As of Tuesday, the Oklahoma State Department of Health reported 3,410 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 in Oklahoma. Total number of deaths related to the virus are 207. There are reportedly 288 hospitalized cases in Oklahoma.
“Our hospitalizations continue to decrease. When we announced our surge plan on April 10, we were expecting to need 1,100 hospital beds at the peak but prepared more than 4,600 beds to stay proactive. Because Oklahomans did such a good job of social distancing, working from home and making sacrifices to flatten the curve, our hospitalizations peaked at 560 back on March 30 and have gone down the entire month of April,” said Stitt.
The new saliva test is now available in Oklahoma. It is less invasive than the current swab tests.
The Oklahoma National Guard is helping with the response in long-term care facilities in the state. The state plans to use the saliva tests to test all 42,000 long-term care residents and their staff over the next 30 days. The Guard is performing deep cleaning and delivering personal protection equipment, known by its acronym, PPE.
You can watch the Governor’s press conference below.
