Holt urges caution as emergency orders relaxed

Mayor David Holt urged caution Friday as Oklahoma City began relaxing COVID-19 emergency orders.

"Today is the start of a new phase but not a time to let our guard down," Holt said at Friday's media briefing.

The mayor, who is married and has two young children, said he has he had mostly kept to the house during the coronavirus emergency.

With public health orders being relaxed, though, he said he was getting questions about whether he would be going out to eat.

The answer is "no," he said. "I'm not changing my behavior in any significant way."

Holt said his temperature is checked when he goes to City Hall.

The mayor wore a mask and had his temperature checked as he arrived Friday afternoon at the Oklahoma City-County Health Department for the news conference.

Holt's shelter-in-place order expired at midnight Thursday as Oklahoma City entered Phase 1 of its "reopening" plan, aligning in large degree with state orders.

With strict directives for social distancing and disinfection, restaurants were allowed to open dining rooms Friday after being closed for six weeks.

Movie theaters, churches and concert halls, gyms, salons and other businesses could reopen. Bars were still closed, as were city playgrounds. Social gatherings of 10 or more people are still forbidden.

"Until there is a vaccine or proven treatment, we will live with COVID-19 as a part of our lives for many months, maybe years," Holt said.

"The activities returning today have the potential to create new opportunities for spreading the virus, but it doesn't have to be that way," he said.

"If you wash your hands, keep your distance and wear your mask, we can continue the relative success, compared to other cities, that we have had in Oklahoma City," Holt said. "It requires each of us taking this seriously and making smart decisions."

The mayor noted some businesses were choosing to stay closed. Creating a "sense of safety," he said, "is the only path to a true economic recovery."

Central to rebuilding confidence is a "robust infrastructure" for testing, tracing and quarantining, Holt said.

Asked to define robust, he said, "I just know that it's more than what we have today."

Limited testing in the metro area is uncoordinated and generally available only to those who make an appointment and submit to a health screening.

Dr. Patrick McGough, executive director of the Oklahoma CityCounty Health Department, said ideally a coronavirus test would be available to anyone who wants one.

He said public health officials need close to 400 "tracers" to reach out to everyone who has been in contact with a person who tests positive.

At the moment, McGough said, the department has 30.

Holt and McGough expressed optimism that federal CARES Act funding could be spent to improve testing and tracing to keep the pandemic in check. The city of Oklahoma City has received $114.3 million through the CARES Act.

Phase 1 of the business activity reboot lasts two weeks.

Holt said emergency managers would "continue to monitor public health data to see how this goes (and) reevaluate all of this by May 15."