OU Chief COVID Officer Dr. Bratzler: COVID-19 Cases Trending Downward Statewide

Oklahoma is now ranked 11th in the country for new COVID-19 cases, as compared to 7th which the state was ranked at about one week ago. University of Oklahoma’s Chief COVID Officer Dr. Dale Bratzler said in a Facebook post over the weekend COVID-19 cases are trending down across the state.

In the post, Bratzler said he is glad to report the trends are heading in the right direction. He said the seven-day average number of cases per day has come down from a peak of 2,800 per day to just under 2,300 per day.

The post said since the Tulsa Health Department’s numbers tend to be lower on Monday and Tuesday’s, he expects them to continue to decline through this week, at least in the short term.

He posted that hospitalizations are still a problem but there has been a slight decrease across the state in those numbers as well.

Bratzler also said in the post that 6.2 million Americans have been vaccinated and he wants to encourage people to get it because it is safe and effective.

“No events showed up more commonly with vaccine than expected in the general population,” Bratzler said. “These vaccines, in addition to being very effective, are very safe! There are a bunch of internet myths out there about adverse events - most of those are complete myths.”