Oklahoma State Medical Association Says State’s Color Coded Map Gives False Sense Of Security

On the state’s color coded COVID-19 alert map Oklahoma has no counties that are in the red. There are two counties in the green with the rest all in the yellow and orange, which means it is only a low or moderate risk.

“It is hard to spot the hot spots and I think that is part of the problem,” said Dr. George Monks, the president of the Oklahoma State Medical Association.

To get a county to go from the orange to red, Monks said there are one of three triggers that would have to be hit.

“Not only do you have to have max capacity in the hospitals in your region, but you have to consume half of your surge beds,” said Monks. “You could also have less than five days of PPE and the third is ventilators, so if we have less than five percent of those in the state.”

But Monks pointed out in the White House map of Oklahoma there are counties which are in the red. He said that is because there aren’t any triggers that a county would have to hit to go into the red.

“You see 24 counties and seven metro counties in the red,” said Monks. “Oklahoma was just named ninth worst state as far as cases per population.”

He mentioned that the Oklahoma State Department of Health has made positive changes in the map over the past couple of months but said there needs to be more.

We reached out to the OSDH for a comment on the matter but did not hear back.