Deaths underscore urgency of OKC vaccinations
Hundreds of firefighters and police officers have received the second of the two COVID-19 shots as the city of Oklahoma City presses to get as many front-line workers as possible vaccinated.
The urgency is compounded by the deaths of three city employees who contracted the virus.
As of this week, more than 2,300 city employees — more than half the workforce — had gotten at least the first dose of the twodose regimen. The second shot is given about a month after the first.
The city's vaccination effort began Dec. 26, two days after the Christmas Eve death of fire Major Andy Davis.
Davis' death was followed by the death Dec. 28 of Robert Saudia, a civilian Fire Department employee. Both were 45.
Ron Anderson, 63, a Utilities Department employee in the line maintenance division, died Jan. 15.
Fire and police received top priority for vaccination.
Nearly 700 employees of those departments had received their second dose by this week. No others had yet reached the stage of getting the second dose.
As of Friday, 645 of the city's approximately 4,300 employees had tested positive for the coronavirus.
Daily new cases trended down the past 10 days, though, from 12 on Jan. 19 to one on Thursday.
The coronavirus hit fire and police particularly hard, with fire stations forced by staffing shortages to go to alert Level Red, the highest pandemic alert level, several times in the past six months.
Fire stations instituted strict safety protocols to contain the outbreaks.
Friday' s daily report listed 23 police employees and 20 fire employees in quarantine. Public Works was next with 14.
There were 10 current cases in the Fire Department and six in police. Citywide there were 44.
Anderson would have marked his 20th anniversary as a city employee this September.
He was married with two sons and three grandchildren.
Davis was a 20-year veteran based at Fire Station 10 at NW 16 and Pennsylvania Avenue.
His father was a firefighter. Two brothers are firefighters, as is a nephew, Cpl. A.J. Davis. A.J. Davis was the first employee to get a COVID-19 vaccination, the day after Christmas.
Saudia had been a Fire Department employee for two years, as a support service specialist.
Fire and police union presidents said this week that firefighters and police officers generally were receptive to being vaccinated.
"There are a few who are hesitant for various reasons but overall it is going well," Cameron Weems, the fire union president, said Friday.
"The newest class of recruits was required to get it to have a job offer," he said by text. "One refused, and his job offer was rescinded."