State’s number of COVID-19 hospitalizations keeps sinking

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The number of Oklahoma hospital patients with COVID-19 continues to sink. State health officials say under 13,000 patients with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 are hospitalized as of Saturday. That’s 407 fewer than on Friday.

State health officials report 779 new coronavirus cases, pushing the Oklahoma pandemic total closer to 424,000. There also were 59 new COVID-19 deaths reported in Oklahoma, bringing the state’s pandemic death toll to almost 4,400.

Johns Hopkins University researchers say the state’s average number of daily new cases over the past two weeks has fallen to 773.3, a 48.8% decrease.

The recent severe winter weather keeping people in their homes and the continued vaccine rollout efforts, in combination with the mitigation measures that were already being taken, seem to be the likeliest contributors to this sharp drop-off in case numbers.