COVID-19 Cases Decline For 5th Straight Week; Doctors Urge Continued Precautions

COVID-19 cases continue to decline across the state, with only 359 new cases reported on Tuesday.

A coalition of doctors and healthcare professionals said while the low number could be connected to recent winter weather; the trends are encouraging.

COVID-19 cases across Oklahoma have now declined for the fifth straight week.

Hospitalizations are also down.

On Tuesday, the Healthier Oklahoma Coalition, which is a group of doctors, nurses and healthcare providers showed their data, and they say while trends are encouraging, Oklahomans should not take them for granted.

Case counts right now are similar to what they were at the end of last summer.

And doctors now estimate about 50 percent of Oklahomans have some form of immunity - either from vaccines or already having the virus.

We also heard from Deputy Commissioner of Health Keith Reed - who says the health department is working to catch up on vaccinations after last week's winter storm.

Over the weekend, the department vaccinated 60,000 Oklahomans, and are rapidly approaching 800,000 vaccinated overall.

"We're making progress on catching up on the delays that occurred from the week of bad weather,” said Reed. “I would like to be at a steady state where we are at least burning through the vaccine that comes through the state within 7 days."

More than 600 Oklahomans are currently in the hospital with COVID-19.