OCCHD adds fifth place to list with most cases of COVID-19 transmission

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – The Oklahoma City-County Health Department has added a fifth place to hotspots where COVID-19 is most commonly spread.

Last week, OCCHD named the “Serious 4.” Restaurants, daycares, office spaces, and places of worship were on the list of places with the most cases of transmission.

This week, it’s the “Serious 5.”  Warehouses have been added to the list. Most cases are seen among assembly line workers.

The “Serious 5” is based on data collected from July 14 to July 28 through contact tracing.

Several cities across the state have recently implemented mask mandates. Oklahoma City’s mask mandate was passed two weeks ago.

“I think the first indicator that we will see that masking policies are starting to help is when we see the percent of positive tests start to go down,” Dr. Dale Bratzler with OU Medicine said. 

Bratzer says studies have shown that masks reduce the infection rate.

“For Oklahoma City, I think it’s too early to know for sure, because when you look at the testing data that’s coming out from the State Health Department, it’s very likely that a lot of the tests that we’re seeing now the results of happened a week ago anyway,” he said. “I always predicted it would take at least two weeks from the date of an ordinance before we might see some reflection of improvement in actual data.”

OCCHD still recommends people 65+ and those who are immunocompromised to stay home.

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