Health Experts Anticipating Potential Spike In COVID Cases This Fall

Tulsa health experts believe another spike in COVID-19 cases could come soon if more people don't get vaccinated.

Dr. Bruce Dart with the Tulsa Health Department says a possible surge will depend on whether more Oklahomans get vaccinated.

He says since there aren't as many people wearing masks, COVID-19 could start mixing in with Flu season, which could put a strain on Oklahoma hospitals.

"If we combine Flu season and infections with COVID, then our hospitals will truly be overwhelmed so we got to take these steps not only to protect each other, and I do not want to sound like a broken record here but we got to keep our healthcare systems viable," Dart said.

April Ketchum recently recovered from COVID-19. She says she's still taking serious precautions and thinks others should too.

"You want to be careful for yourself but you also want to be careful for your friends and family that you want to be around," Ketchum said. "Especially with the holidays coming up."

Doctor Dart says although the vaccines can lower the infection rate, there will always be a risk as long as COVID-19 and different variants are around.

"We all want this pandemic to be over and once we can create natural barriers of transmission and not give this virus any more opportunities to replicate and create new variants, we will get past this, but we can't do it if we don't have a certain level of immunity," Dart said.

Right now, 45 percent of Oklahomans are fully vaccinated. Dr. Dart says now is the most important time to get the shot.