Oklahoma opens COVID-19 vaccinations to all states

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma will begin providing COVID-19 vaccinations to residents of any state as Oklahoma’s vaccine supplies and vaccinations administered increased, deputy state Health Commissioner Keith Reed said Wednesday.

Until now, Oklahoma had limited vaccinations to only its 4 million residents.

Now, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Oklahoma has received more than 2.9 million vaccine doses and administered more than 2.1 million vaccinations. So, residents of any state will become eligible for vaccination in Oklahoma starting Thursday.

“While our focus has been and will continue to be on vaccinating Oklahomans, we have always known there would be a point at which supply and increasing capacity would allow us to welcome residents from neighboring states into Oklahoma to get vaccinated,” Reed said. “We are now reaching that point.”

According to the state health department, reported virus cases in Oklahoma increased Wednesday sharply, as predicted, by more than 1,700.

The department reported 441,906 virus cases since the pandemic began, an increase of 1,764 from Tuesday.

On Tuesday, state epidemiologist Dr. Jared Taylor said a laboratory, which he declined to identify, thought it was properly reporting positive cases, but about 1,300 were not recorded into a new system the health department uses to track cases.