Oklahoma State Dept. Of Health Says 92 Cases Of Delta Variant Detected Statewide

The State Department of Health said it needs to study more positive COVID-19 test results to figure out just how widespread the Delta variant is in Oklahoma.  

A spokesperson for the OSDH said right now, healthcare providers that collect COVID-19 tests are only sending samples to the state to be tested for variants on a volunteer basis.  

Health Commissioner Dr. Lance Frye said the state is considering a requirement for providers to send a certain percentage of their positive tests going forward, so the state can get a better look at any variants that could be spreading. 

The Oklahoma State Department of Health said Friday that so far, 92 cases of the Delta variant have been detected across the state. 

The state confirmed 47 of those cases are from April and May, when health experts said there was an outbreak at a gymnastics facility in Cleveland County. 

A report released Friday by the CDC said the people who tested positive ranged in age from 5 to 58. Among all 47 cases, it said two adults were hospitalized, and mentions no deaths. The report did not name the facility where the outbreak occurred.   

"We were very fortunate that we were able to kind of contain that particular situation and we didn't see widespread due to individuals that were associated,” State Epidemiologist Jolianne Stone said.

Stone said the state needs hospitals and other providers to continue to send their positive tests to the state lab in order to get a more accurate picture of how the Delta variant could be impacting Oklahomans.  

"Likely, there's more than 92 cases of delta variant in the state,” Stone said. “Again, these are just of the ones that we've sequenced and that we've received and we're certainly working with our partners to get a wider range of the number of specimens that we've received so that we can get a better estimate."  

Frye continued to push for vaccinations, especially for those in the 12-34 age range, as COVID-19 continues to spread.  

"It is an uptick and I don't want to minimize it. You know the numbers overall are still small in our state compared to where we were, but it is definitely an increase." 

The state also gave updated COVID hospitalization numbers Friday, saying there are 177 adults in the hospital, with 58 of them needing intensive care. 

Frye said those numbers are similar to June of 2020 and April of 2021, as cases started to decline.