OKC Mayor Holt Responds To COVID-19 Increase

Oklahoma is seeing an increase in the number COVID-19 cases.

Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt attributed the increase to people letting their guard down when it comes to social distancing.

He said people need to remain vigilant when it comes to washing your hands, keeping social distance and wear a mask.

However, he said due to a still flat hospitalization and no spike in the number of death, Holt won’t be making new rules.

“Is it time to try more restriction? Not yet. I think let's try to work on our personal behavior,” Holt said.

Holt is confident if people get better at hand washing, social distancing and wearing a mask, the numbers will go down again.

He also said tracing data doesn't link the increase in cases to recent protests.

OU's chief COVID officer said less testing was done last week compared to other weeks.

The infection rate, which was as low at 1.8%, was at 4.6% last week.

“It not due to more testing. I think we got lax in doing the things that we know will prevent the spread of the disease,” said Dr. Dale Bratzler.

The Oklahoma State Health Department reported another 186 new COVID-19 cases on Monday.

It means there are more than 1,400 active cases.

No new deaths were reported in Monday. The total number of virus-related deaths stayed static at 359.

Related: OSDH: 186 More Oklahomans Test Positive For Coronavirus; No New Virus-Related Deaths Reported