As COVID-19 cases fill hospitals, the Oklahoma City Council will consider a mask mandate and a vaccination incentive program at its meeting Tuesday. (Photo by Mufid Majnun via Unsplash)
OKLAHOMA CITY – The climbing number of COVID-19 infections in Oklahoma pushed the seven-day average of new cases to 2,806 Monday, the highest level since January.
Those cases are filling hospital beds across the state.
Four Oklahoma City health systems have joined forces to provide regular updates on COVID-19 case counts and hospital bed availability to keep the public better informed of the emergency. Between them, they had 517 of the 1,572 patients with the virus who were hospitalized Monday.
Their joint report showed no beds available, include ICU beds, in any hospital in either the Integris or Mercy systems. Mercy had one patient waiting in the emergency room for an ICU bed to open.
No ICU beds were available in SSM Health St. Anthony hospitals, and OU Health had no open beds for COVID-19 patients but has some ICU beds available for other critically ill or injured patients.
The situation leaves many smaller hospitals nowhere to transfer patients in-state who need more critical care than they can provide.
“The health systems will provide a joint update every Monday, Wednesday and Friday until our health care community begins to see relief from this current surge,” officials said in a statement. “As a reminder, these numbers are constantly changing as our teams work to discharge, transfer, and admit patients throughout the day.”
Hospital leaders from the four health systems came together in a news conference Aug. 17 to plead with Oklahomans to get vaccinated and to wear masks in order to slow the surge of hospitalizations.
Three Oklahoma City Council members want to reenact the city’s earlier mask mandate in response to the rising numbers. The Oklahoma City COVID-19 Safety Code was in place from July 17, 2020, until April 30.
Council Members James Cooper, JoBeth Hamon and Nikki Nice asked city staff to draft a new ordinance requiring a face covering in many public settings for most residents until Oct. 1. The new ordinance will be up for a vote of the City Council at Tuesday’s meeting.
“The ordinance proposal requires seven of nine votes and four councilmembers have already announced their opposition, so the math speaks for itself,” Mayor David Holt said Monday. “But even without an ordinance the COVID-19 situation is serious, and we are all working to try and bring the case and hospitalization numbers down.”
Also Tuesday, the City Council will consider a resolution brought by Cooper, Hamon and Nice for a vaccine promotion and incentive program to be funded using Coronavirus Relief Funds or Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds.
“We have an important resolution on the agenda regarding vaccinations and our community’s efforts to increase the vaccination numbers, and I am hopeful we can move forward on that,” Holt said.
Phil Maytubby, chief operating officer at the Oklahoma City-County Health Department, reiterated the importance of both masks and vaccination Monday.
“We support the CDC’s guidance to continuing wearing masks indoors, especially in schools. Masks are an important mitigation tool, but they are not the answer to ending the pandemic,” Maytubby said. “Vaccinations are the answer, so we’re looking forward to working with the city of Oklahoma City on an incentive program that will hopefully motivate more eligible people to get vaccinated.”
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August 31, 2021 at 06:20AM
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ICU beds filled to capacity as cases rise - Journal Record
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