Statewide Increase In COVID-19 Cases Highlights Concerns With Community Transmission

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise across Oklahoma, health officials are increasingly concerned by community transmission.

"It is not just a metropolitan problem. This is statewide," said Patti Davis, the President of the Oklahoma Hospital Association.

She said with this community spread comes issues statewide.

"With the increase number of positives in Oklahoma, we see with positive rate increase we see subsequent hospitalizations," said Davis.

The coming month is typically full of with more family gatherings, indoor sporting events, and shopping in person.

"If you go out in any public setting, your chance of actually running into someone who is actively infected is actually pretty high. If it's a large crowd and more concern if it is an indoor crowd," said Dr. Dale Bratzler, the Chief COVID Officer for OU Health.

According to the latest White House report, 95% of Oklahoma counties are hitting high community transmission levels. However, this is not the worst health officials plan to see.

“If you look at all the prediction models, they actually show that the peak of hospitalizations is expected to happen around January 10th or so, where we can have twice as many as we have in the hospital as we have now," said Bratzler.

A vaccine is currently in the works, as officials say we could see FDA approval in the coming weeks but the pandemic and masking up are not over quite yet.

"Just because we have a vaccine doesn't mean we will not have to wear a mask for some time," said Bratzler.