“Cases are growing quickly”

In an email sent Monday night, Mendy Spohn, regional administrative director for District 8 of the Oklahoma State Department of Health detailed a wave of COVID-19 cases to the hit the area in recent weeks. Spohn’s e-mail is the latest

Spohn’s e-mail is the latest message from public health officials that Oklahoma continiues to see a rise in coronavirus cases in the midst of reopening.

The state as a whole announced a record daily high with 585 additional positive cases June 30.

As part of the press conference announcing this new record high case number, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt for the first time asked Oklahomans to consider wearing a mask when social distancing as a viable option.

“Research shows that wearing a mask when you can’t social distance significantly lowers the risk of transmission rate of COVID-19,” Stitt said.

We have included Spohn’s e-mail in its entirety to provide the public as much information as possible.

From Spohn’s e-mail, “hi everyone:

“District 8 has 337 cases as of today. Of those, 254 are considered recovered. I know of 34 cumulative hospitalizations since March, and of 5 currently hospitalized. Tracking current hospitalization numbers is sometimes tricky, because we don’t always hear as soon as someone is admitted or taken to the hospital. In District 8, approximately 32,500 tests have been conducted between

physicians, urgent cares or tests sought by our residents outside of our district or state.

Cases are growing quickly in the District. Here is a look at weekly numbers:

5/18 83

5/27 134

6/1 150

6/8 176

6/15 217

6/22 271

6/29 337

We do have a bit of lag time in reporting due to many factors in the reporting process. The state health department is working on getting our cases confirmed in the reporting software so it will be captured in our website posting. For example, I expect Carter to grow tomorrow by more than 10. But these are cases that have been worked over the past several days and not an example of a one day change when just looking at the simple county cumulative case count.

Our case investigators are getting push back from patients and contacts. People are refusing to answer questions or identify their contacts. Please communicate with your groups the importance of providing correct information. If contacts are not identified, they are at risk of developing COVID, and they have the potential of spreading it before they even know they are sick. Quarantine doesn’t mean someone is in trouble. It is the best tool we have of keeping the spread down. Staying out of the public while the virus is possibly incubating inside your body is a responsibility we have to our communities, families and work places.

Wear a MASK. We are spreading this virus to each other at work and at home. Big gatherings get a lot of attention, but those small gatherings or the daily interactions we have at work are just as critical.

· Positive patients can get letters from the county health departments for work to exclude them from work or to be released back into the public.

· A positive case will be released from isolation after at least 10 days, symptom improvement and 3 days no fever without medications.

· Close contacts will be quarantined for 14 days no matter what their test results are during the quarantine period. This is because the virus can take up to 14 days to produce symptoms.

· A household contact, who cannot isolate from a positive person, will not start their 14 day quarantine period until the very last day of the positive person’s isolation period.

Schools are beginning to solidify their plans for reopening. We have been working very closely with the administration of all our school districts to provide them guidance and help them navigate this very complicated time. Please be patient with school administration as they begin working through all the possible scenarios and the case investigations as they pop up. Each school has been given a contact name and number of a health department employee to be their go to person. This is in an effort to provide quick responses and good guidance as schools get back to business.

Testing is still available for free at the health departments in each county. Just call ahead and fill out the paperwork. We don’t ask much information. Also, the Chickasaw Nation testing tents are still available to everyone. I cannot completely express my thankfulness for all of the testing efforts from Chickasaw Nation! Our district public health staff have been able to devote more attention to education, case investigation and tracking because a lot of the community testing has been performed by the Chickasaw Nation.

I hope everyone is doing well. Hang in there and wear your Mask! It makes a difference.”