(Oklahoma City, OK) Amid increasingly vocal demands from the public to loosen pandemic restrictions, Gov. Kevin Stitt urged Oklahomans Wednesday to stay home as much as possible “just a little bit longer.”
At a briefing on the COVID-19 situation, the governor announced he is working with health officials on plans to reopen the state.
“I know that Oklahomans are hurting right now,” he said. “I just want you to know that we are going to get through this. Light is at the end of the tunnel.”
The shutdown of nonessential businesses until April 30 has put thousands of Oklahomans out of work while restrictions on gatherings of no more than 10 have resulted in the postponements of weddings, funerals and other events.
Stitt said those safety precautions and others are working, though, resulting in a flattening of the curve.
Key to his decision on reopening the state will be forecasts on the availability of hospital beds, intensive care unit beds and ventilators to care for COVID-19 patients. He said Oklahoma looks right now to be in fantastic shape even under the worst-case scenarios.
“We’re going to monitor this data day and night to make sure that nothing spikes and no trends go in a different direction,” he said. “Because that would be the last thing we want is to slowly start opening things back up post-April 30 and we see some kind of … spike.”
Projections released Monday by an institute used by the White House show Oklahoma hitting its peak need for hospital resources April 30.
