For the first time in months, coronavirus cases are down in Oklahoma and medical experts are cautiously optimistic the trend will continue.
Oklahoma’s coronavirus cases have been dropping from their January peak for weeks, with the 7-day average at its lowest point since November.
Medical experts in the Healthier Oklahoma Coalition said this drop likely has many factors. Holiday gatherings are over, and enough time has passed that infections from them are no longer being diagnosed. As of Jan. 28, more than 300,000 Oklahomans have been vaccinated. More cities have implemented mask mandates, which decrease positivity in those communities.
But there are two threats, they said. The first is human behavior.
"As long as we continue to behave as we are right now as a society, we really expect these numbers to keep coming down," said OU School of Public Health epidemiologist Aaron Wendelboe. "If people on the converse say we've got a decrease, [so] we can stop masking, we can start enjoying parties and all these type of things that go back to pre-COVID behavior. We will actually see another surge in cases."
The second threat is that new strains of the coronavirus are more transmissible.
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