In response to reports of a recent, rapid rise in Covid cases across the state of Oklahoma, Seminole County Board of County Commissioners spent a portion of their weekly meeting on Monday, August 2 discussing the possibility of reinstating a mask mandate and sanitizing and disinfecting regularly at the Courthouse.

District 2 Commissioner Tim Porter began the discussion by questioning of there was any other mask mandates in the state. District 1 Commissioner Russell Yott replied that he didn’t believe there was, adding that he didn’t think there will be. He stated that he was in favor of sanitizing, adding that he thought they had been continuing to do so.

Seminole County Emergency Manager Von Wilcots commented that if they wanted to reinstate the mask mandate there would be no problem in doing so, pointing out that the Delta variant of the Covid virus is picking back up. Others in the room noted that there were between 11,000 and 12,000 cases in the state, and cases have been picking up in Seminole County.

Commissioner Yott noted that a friend of his had died the day before, 14 days after contracting the virus. It was also observed the Wewoka veterinarian clinic has been shut down due to Covid infections.

Yott made the motion to decline the mask mandate at this time but return to all sanitizing and disinfectant protocols. District 3 Commissioner Taylor commented that they should continue to watch the situation and possibly consider making a change in the next meeting or two if cases continue to increase before seconding the motion, which passed.

Later in the day the Oklahoma State Department of Health reported 5,597 new COVID-19 cases across the state since Friday, July 30, bringing the total cumulative number of the state’s positive cases to 486,232 since March 2020.

According to the OSDH, as of Monday Seminole County has reported a total of 2,927 Covid cases since the pandemic struck in 2020. This has resulted in a total of 79 deaths in the County. 2,821 of the reported cases have recovered.

The latest risk map shows Seminole County had between 1.43 to 14.29 cases per 100,000, placing it in the yellow, or middle range of three alert levels. Green level is less than 1.43 per 100,000, and orange level is more than 14.29 cases per 100,000.

According to the OSDH weekly report on Friday, July 30, new cases in Oklahoma were up by more than 67 percent compared to the previous week.

State medical experts believe there are two main factors to the sharp increase. These are the Delta variant, which spreads much more rapidly, and Oklahoma’s low vaccination rate, which is hovering at approximately 40 percent. This places the state in the bottom 11 states for vaccine rollout.

Oklahoma coronavirus hospitalizations had been averaging around 200 throughout the spring and early summer. However, more than 600 people were reported hospitalized at the start of August. Approximately one third of these patients are in an intensive care unit. This has raised concerns in the Oklahoma medical community, since non-Covid strain on hospitals is already high.