Oklahoma COVID-19 Cases Trending Down, Hospitalizations Remain Steady

The Chief COVID Officer for OU Health says Oklahoma's case numbers are trending down.

Even though the number of positive COVID cases is decreasing, Dr. Dale Bratzler says 1,400 people are still in the hospital fighting the virus.

Bratzler said unvaccinated patients make up the majority of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Oklahoma, but said there are some fully vaccinated patients in the hospital. He said most of those cases have been in people 65 or older.

"37% of those infected in that age group were fully vaccinated, 26% who were hospitalized were fully vaccinated, and 22% of the deaths/those were the deaths from the disease," said Bratzler.

Dr. Bratzler said unvaccinated people are 10 times more likely to end up in the hospital and 11 times more likely to die from the virus

On Wednesday, 42 deaths were reported related to COVID-19 in Oklahoma.

Bratzler said nationally COVID deaths are up right now. He said that's because the delta variant is more contagious and people who were infected with the delta variant are twice as likely to be hospitalized.

As far as cases go, Tulsa County has the second most positive cases in the state, behind Oklahoma County.