In a Friday press conference, Governor Kevin Stitt said he will soon lay out his plan for getting Oklahoma back to normal following the Coronavirus pandemic.
If all goes according to plan, Oklahoma will begin re-opening next month.
"From what we’re seeing, if these trend lines continue the way they have been, then we believe that May 1st will be a good time to start proactively opening some things up," Stitt said.
Life won’t go totally back to normal on that date, but businesses currently shuttered would start opening up in limited phases at that time. Stitt said social distancing appears to be working as cases have not skyrocketed.
Oklahoma has actually seen a downward trend in new hospitalizations because of COVID-19 in the last several weeks. But that doesn’t mean the state is letting up.
"We’re not going to stop our planning on our surge capability in the state of Oklahoma," Stitt said. "We’re not going to stop our tracing, which is going to be very critical in isolating and finding out where any future outbreaks may be."
Re-opening businesses will require a phased approach. And Stitt said he’ll release a timeline for that in the coming days.
During the press conference, it was announced that Integris Baptist Medical Center would be the Oklahoma City hospital designated as a flex site to focus on COVID-19 patients in the second phase of the state's surge plan. OSU Medical Center was announced last week as the site for Tulsa.
Stitt said after hearing about testing problems in Tulsa, the state has partnered with Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma to stage mobile testing sites at their Tulsa campuses — OSU Health Center for Health Sciences and OU Health Sciences Center.
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