Oklahoma Hits New Milestones In COVID-19 Cases, Deaths

Oklahoma has surpassed 200,000 positive COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began as a backlog of cases comes through.

The state reported 54 deaths today for the time period between October 24 and November 30, with a majority of those coming in the past week.

Oklahoma has one of the highest rates in the country for positive tests and today topped 200 thousand infections, and over 1,800 dead in this pandemic.

Related Story: Latest White House COVID-19 Report Shows Oklahoma In Red Zone

In a briefing Wednesday morning by an Oklahoma State University COVID-19 expert, the prediction was increasing hospitalizations at least through early January. It's a rolling tide of infections, then hospitalizations - then deaths.

As of Wednesday, there are 859 new cases of COVID-19 in Oklahoma, with 1,782 people hospitalized. That's led to another 54 Oklahomans dying of the disease, with another surge expected early next week.

"The thing that's scary about this one, even being prepared, clinically to care for these patients, when you have an older population, end up hospitalized and a subset will be critically or severely ill,” Dr. Jennifer Clark from Oklahoma State University said.

If the predictions hold, cases and hospitalizations will double in early January. 54 deaths reported Wednesday was a new high, with a 1% death rate, it would be 80 people dying each day by then.