The mayors of Oklahoma's two largest cities say they will allow their orders to slow the spread of coronavirus to expire on April 30.
Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt and Tulsa Mayor GT Bynum both appeared conflicted on letting their orders expire during their Friday press conferences.
Holt said that the city's shelter in place order will expire April 30, which will allow non-essential businesses to start reopening. He says he will issue a proclamation next week that he believes will align with Governor Kevin Stitt’s three phased plan to reopen the state’s economy.
Oklahoma City currently meets White House criteria for reopening, but an emotional Holt said that if it was only up to him, he wouldn’t have chosen May 1 as a date to reopen.
"In fact I think this is the hardest speech I’ve given during this pandemic," Holt said. "I recognize that I would always have mixed emotions, because until there is a vaccine or treatment, there simply isn’t a right answer. We could be sitting here talking about July 1 or June 1, and I would feel almost the same."
Bynum announced that Tulsa's "Safer At Home" order will also be allowed to expire on April 30. He pointed to Stitt's plan and predicted that Tulsa's COVID-19 cases would only increase.
"Our cases in Tulsa County over the last 14 days are trending upward, not down," Bynum said. "If we were to follow the federal standard locally, we would wait for the 14-day decline to occur and then begin rollbacks. But Tulsa does not exist in a bubble. We do not get that choice."
Meanwhile, Holt said that even his order will expire April 30, Oklahoma City businesses will still have to follow certain requirements, which may include mandatory mask wearing for all employees and customers, social distancing, and no gathering in groups of larger than 10 people. He stressed that these were not recommendations, but requirements.
If there is a dramatic change in the trend of new COVID-19 cases between now and May 1, Holt says he will act accordingly and not hesitate to issue another shelter in place order.
Stillwater Mayor Will Joyce says his city's shelter in place order will also be allowed to expire on April 30. Like his peers, Joyce expressed reservations about the timing.
"As Mayor Bynum noted, Tulsa and other areas of the state are not seeing consistent declines, but with other communities resuming these activities, the public health benefit of our current measures will be effectively nullified," Joyce said. "Without a clear benefit to public health, it would be unfair to require Stillwater businesses to stay closed while similar enterprises in other cities were allowed to open.”
Joyce encouraged residents to continue to protect themselves, including social distancing and the wearing of face coverings. Stillwater is distributing masks to citizens who need them on April 28 and 29.
Norman Mayor Breea Clark says she is finalizing a multi-phased plan to reopen Norman businesses and will announced on April 28.
Edmond's Declaration of Emergency will stay in place through April 30 and the Edmond City Council will discuss the reopening of businesses at their regular meeting on Monday, April 27.
