Pandemic linked to 551 Oklahoma deaths

The Daily Ardmoreite

Two new deaths recorded on Sunday and Monday kept the seven-day average of deaths linked to COVID-19 near eight.

The coronavirus pandemic has claimed more than 550 lives in Oklahoma after new deaths were recorded on Sunday and Monday. New confirmed cases dropped to the lowest daily numbers in about two weeks, when reporting errors were providing inaccurate data.

Only 871 new cases of COVID-19 were reported Sunday and Monday, according to the Oklahoma State Department of Health. That is significantly lower than the 1,244 cases recorded on Saturday after a week of record-setting daily confirmations.

Oklahoma has recorded 38,602 cases of COVID-19, including 31,165 recoveries and 551 deaths. Nearly 3,300 patients have been hospitalized because of the disease.

With virus-related deaths reported on Sunday and Monday, the death toll in Oklahoma has risen to 551. A vast majority of patient deaths linked to COVID-19 were over 65 years old, but 26 of the deaths have been patients under 50 years old; nine were 35-years-old or younger.

The seven-day average of new confirmed cases fell sharply as a result of the lower numbers reported on Sunday and Monday, but remained about 10 times higher than the average recorded before the virus surge that started in June.

Nearly 6,900 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Oklahoma were not listed as deceased or recovered on Monday.

Carter County recorded two new cases on Sunday and four on Monday, bringing the county total to 308 confirmed cases. Fifty-six cases across the county are not recorded as deceased or recovered, with Ardmore home to most of those presumably active cases.

Carter County has recorded 308 cases of COVID-19 since March 25, with 249 considered recovered and three deaths linked to the disease.

Wilson is seeing a disproportionately high rate of confirmed COVID-19 cases. The small town has already recorded at least 20 confirmed cases of the disease, out of an estimated population of 1,700, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Oklahoma has recorded 38,602 total cases of the disease, or 1,038 cases per 100,000 people; Wilson has recorded the equivalent of 1,176 cases per 100,000 people. Nationwide, about 1,418 cases of the disease have been reported per 100,000 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Carter County had 56 presumably active cases of COVID-19 on Monday, with 11 of them recorded in Wilson.

Of the 20 cases recorded in Wilson, at least half of them were reported in the past week and 11 of them were not considered deceased or recovered as of Monday.