Oklahoma officials are expected to sharply curtail release of information related to the COVID-19 pandemic on Monday, taking down the numbers of infections, deaths and recoveries in nursing homes, ZIP codes, cities and small counties, said a health department source familiar with the decision.
The decision to stop publishing detailed data at the local level coincides with the expiration of the state’s Catastrophic Health Emergency Powers Act, which ended at midnight Sunday.
A check of the state’s COVID-19 dashboard on Sunday evening reflected the changes, with only about 20 counties showing detailed data. More than 3,000 of the state’s 6,500 positive cases were listed under the county category as “other.” A note said that category included counties with fewer than 20,000 people.
The section for city data was removed entirely. Similarly, there was no ZIP code data on the dashboard, a stark change from Saturday, which showed a ZIP code in the Guymon area with the state’s largest number of cases at 761.
Many of those infections have been connected to the Seaboard Foods pork processing plant there. The state had been publishing ZIP code data on infections, deaths and recoveries since April 18.
Oklahoma Watch made multiple requests for detailed, non-private information for COVID-19 data in March and April. At the time, the requests were denied because the Oklahoma State Department of Health said the information couldn’t be released under federal and state privacy laws.
That determination changed by midApril, when the state began publishing local data on its online data dashboard, including city and ZIP code information. Nursing home infection and death data has been published since April 7. More than half of the state’s 334 deaths from COVID-19 have come in nursing homes.
In announcing the data dashboard on April 16, then-Health Commissioner Gary Cox made no mention of offering the data only as long as the state’s catastrophic health emergency was in effect. Cox was replaced by new interim Health Commissioner Lance Frye after being unable to secure confirmation by the Senate.
Officials said late Sunday they are consulting with legal experts to see how the state might be able to offer additional COVID-19 data.
The health department will continue to publish weekday reports on hospital capacity, personal protective equipment supplies and virus data on a statewide basis. It also plans to keep reporting a weekly epidemiological report.
According to the Oklahoma State Department of Health, the total number of persons in Lincoln and Pottawatomie Counties testing positive for the COVID-19 Coronavirus has increased by only six in the past week.
That’s a sign the virus continues to decline in this area.
Total number of persons testing positive throughout the state as of Tuesday is 6,692. A week ago it was 6,137.
The number of persons statewide testing positive for the virus in the past week has jumped 555, the OSDH reports, compared to an increase of 648 during the seven-day period prior to the past week.
The number of deaths from the virus stood at 339 on Tuesday. That’s an increase of 21 over the 318 a week ago. The jump in deaths from the previous seven-day period was 24.
Lincoln County’s total number of positive cases as of Tuesday remains at 22, the same as a week ago.
Recoveries increased by four from the 15 of a week ago, bringing the total to 19. There have been two deaths.
Pottawatomie County’s total number of people testing positive stands at 63, compared to 57 a week ago, according to the OSDH.
Four persons in the county have died from the virus. Of the 63 confirmed cases, 52 have recovered, the OSDH reports.
The number of combined positive cases in Lincoln and Pottawatomie Counties now stands at 85.
As of Tuesday, the OSDH is reporting more than 197,000 have tested negative statewide.
Last Tuesday, the number of people testing negative was 153,804, a jump of more than 43,000 testing negative.