The OU COVID-19 dashboard updated for the week of Feb. 3-9, showing a decrease in tests in the week following the winter storm which closed the OU Norman campus.
The university performed 54 COVID-19 tests during the week of Feb. 3-9, and 3 tests, or 5.56 percent, were positive. The previous week saw 63 positive cases out of 310 tests performed, or a positive case average of 20.32 percent.
During the week of Feb. 3-9, Cleveland County reported 1,302 positive cases, which is a decrease from last week’s reported 4,770 positive cases, according to the dashboard. Oklahoma had a similar dip, reporting 16,543 new cases this week from the 52,904 previous week.
On Feb. 14, Oklahoma ranked 33rd in the nation in cases per 100,000 with 41 cases per 100,000 people, a daily average of 1,621 cases and 2,283 new cases, according to the New York Times.
The updated dashboard crosses with the winter storm that hit Oklahoma last Wednesday, Feb. 2, and caused the Feb. 2-4 closure of the OU Norman campus. OU Chief COVID Officer Dr. Dale Bratzler said he feared the winter storm caused a lag in COVID-19 case reporting during his Feb. 9 livestream, despite downward trends across the United States, according to the CDC.
Bratzler said the “dramatic” decline like an “Olympic ski slope” is ultimately what worried him.
“We were consistently seeing almost 4,000 cases a day before the winter storm, so I do think cases have come down dramatically,” Bratzler said during the livestream. “The case count is much much lower than it was a couple of weeks ago. I’m just not sure that the numbers over the past two or three days adequately reflect what’s actually happening.”
