Mayor Bynum Bans Some Large Events To Prevent Coronavirus Spread

More public events are shutting down.

The Tulsa Public Schools board will meet Monday to discuss closing school after spring break.

The mayor’s order Saturday means events in the city-owned venues like the Performing Arts Center are off for now.

Bynum used his authority, and advice from the health department, to ban some large events, before coronavirus spreads in Tulsa.

"We want Tulsa to be out ahead of this and ahead of other communities and be proactive on this,” Bynum said.

The ban, effective 5 p.m. Saturday, applies to groups of 250 people or more.

It only applies to City of Tulsa property. It also includes events staged on city streets.

For now, the ban runs through April 15.

The decision comes as several organizations and churches are closing down, on their own, for a few weeks.

Hotels are losing customers because events are being canceled.

The library is closed. Jury trials at the courthouse are off. Colleges are going online after spring break.

There are crowds, however, at Reasor’s and Target.

Even with limits on purchases, some of the shelves for paper goods are bare.

Customers loaded their carts with toilet paper, hand sanitizer and water, some after driving store-to-store to find what they think they'll need.

"They're almost out of everything, and I got the last two waters of that brand, so I got lucky,” Target shopper Mayra Velez said.

Only four people in Oklahoma have tested positive for COVID-19. All of them picked it up out of state and returned home.

Forty people have tests pending, but the state health department won't reveal which counties submitted the tests.

As churches make decisions tonight about their services Sunday, the health department said large group settings is where the virus will spread fastest.

"What we want to do is lower that spike and one of the best ways we can do that is to stop people from gathering at those large events,” Tulsa Health Department executive director Dr. Bruce Dart said.