The City Council voted 4-0 this week to extend a resolution that put into place several COVID-19 provisions including a requirement that masks or face coverings be worn by anyone visiting or working at enclosed City-owned facilities. The resolution, adopted by the council on November 2020, was set to expire at 11:59 p.m. on Monday.
“The good news is that things are much, much better than when we looked at this the last time,” City Manager Mike Bailey told the council Monday night. “We’re starting to see a flattening of the curve across the state, and that is very good news.
“Since October, which is really when we started to see a significant spike in the cases, we went from under 100,000 at the beginning of October to over 400,000 cases as of yesterday. So we certainly do need to continue to pay attention, because while the number of new cases are decreasing in Oklahoma compared to what they had been, they are still significant. We are actually at the same point now as we were when we decided it was appropriate to take action.”
Bailey said Washington County remains in the “orange” category based on the Oklahoma State Department of Health’s risk level assessment measurements.
“We would have to get under 14 infections per 100,000 people to get back to the ‘yellow,’ or lower risk category,” he said. “We are experiencing a nice decline in cases and are now into the 20s. So we’re on a good path. We’re not there yet, but we are closer than we’ve been in a very long time,” he said.
Nearly 4,500 Oklahomans have died as a result of the disease, according to Oklahoma State Department of Health records, though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention places the state’s death rate closer to 7,000.
Bailey said that in light of improving infection rates for the state and growing availability for COVID-19 vaccines, the COVID-19 Public Information Campaign plans to switch its focus from awareness of “the three Ws: Wash Your Hands, Wear a Mask, Wash Your Hands” to CDC support of the vaccinations.
“You authorized and funded a public information campaign that revolved around those CDC recommendations,” he said. “One recommendation that has been added is to get vaccinated, so we’ve added that to the list of CDC recommendations the campaign will promote.”
Bailey said that given improvements in infection rates, the ongoing awareness campaign is starting to wind down but is poised to pivot to focus on vaccinations when appropriate.
“Assuming enough of the vaccine becomes available to where people are able to get it at will, we can begin to pivot towards encouraging people to get vaccinated,” he said.
The resolution will expire May 3 if not extended or terminated before that time.