Stitt downplays White House report
State fares better in data from Johns Hopkins, which calculates rates differently
Gov. Kevin Stitt on Thursday downplayed a White House report showing Oklahoma is the fifth-highest state for new COVID-19 cases and test positivity.
Asked about the latest White House Coronavirus Task Force report, Stitt questioned the report's findings and pointed to alternative data that shows the state as having a lower test positivity.
“When I saw that, I certainly was calling our Health Department to find out where (the White House) is getting that data,” Stitt said at a news conference. “I would encourage the media, and especially The Daily Oklahoman who printed that today, to look at Johns Hopkins because that's the positivity rate that we track, and we're nowhere close to fifth in the country.”
Using the percent positive from last week, the latest White House report lists Oklahoma's test positivity at 10%, down from the 11.3% a week prior.
Johns Hopkins University data, which is calculated on a seven- day rolling average, showed Oklahoma with an 8.6% positivity rate on Thursday, giving the state the 14th-highest positivity rate in the country. According to the university's data, Oklahoma's test positivity is worse than states like Arizona, Texas, California and New York that have all faced massive COVID-19 outbreaks.
Weekly reports from the White House have shown Oklahoma's test positivity creeping up through the summer. With some schoolchildren back in class, college students back on campus and COVID-19 outbreaks in some prisons, Oklahoma's test positivity last week was at the second highest its been since the reports began in June.
The State Department of Health also recently began including positive rapid COVID-19 test results along with state's “confirmed” cases. Previously, the agency counted most “positive” rapid antigen test results as “probable” infections.
Stitt said the change, which occurred during the reporting period for the latest White House report, could have contributed to the increase in the state's positivity rate.
Addressing emails about Tulsa Trump rally
Stitt and interim Health Commissioner Lance Frye addressed emails obtained by The Hill, a Washington news outlet, in which Oklahoma's former state epidemiologist expressed concerns ahead of President Donald Trump's Tulsa campaign rally.
Emails obtained through a public records request showed Aaron Wendelboe, whose contract with the state has since expired, wondered if he should speak out against the rally due to public health concerns.
“I am concerned that the mass indoor gathering in Tulsa of 19,000 people will directly lead to deaths in Oklahoma,” he wrote.
Neither Stitt nor Frye responded to a question about whether they were aware of Wendelboe's concerns. Both said they looked at COVID19 modeling prior to the June rally.
“We get lots of modeling, and so far, the only thing that's consistent is it's all been wrong,” Frye said. “But we look at all of it, we assess it, and then we give guidance based off the information that we get, and we definitely gave everyone a lot of guidance prior to the rally.”
Stitt said he urged people who are especially vulnerable to COVID- 19 to watch the rally from home.
COVID-19 in prisons
Stitt vowed to make state prison officials available to discuss how the Department of Corrections is responding to COVID-19 outbreaks in prisons.
As of Thursday, the department listed 1,004 inmates as currently positive for COVID-19.
Outbreaks at the Northeast Oklahoma Correctional Center and Eddie Warrior Correctional Center have turned Craig County and Muskogee into brief national hot spots for the virus.
Saying Oklahoma was one of
the first states to limit visitations at prisons, Stitt said he was pleased with the limited number of cases in prisons at the start of of the pandemic.
“We were kind of the national leader,” Stitt said. “Unfortunately, it has broken out in a few of prisons across the state since then.”