State officials unveiling new hospital surge plan as Oklahoma shatters hospitalization records
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – Oklahoma’s state leaders are unveiling a new hospital surge plan.
“We’re seeing an uptick in our hospital counts across the state over the past few weeks,” said Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt.
Oklahoma’s hospitals have been breaking records over the past month as more patients need care.
Tuesday, the state saw yet another record high in hospitalizations, with 870 people in the hospital with COVID-19.
The rising numbers have sparked the new surge plan.
“I want you to know, we have the hospital beds, we have the capacity, we have the workers available to take care of COVID and non-COVID patients across the state of Oklahoma,” said Stitt.
The plan breaks the state up into regions and assign a tier based on current hospital capacities.
Currently, the entire state sits in Tier One, which means less than 15 percent of hospital’s current patients are sick with COVID-19.
If the numbers rise between 16 percent and 20 percent, the hospital will go to Tier Two.
In Tier Two, hospitals could begin to move recovering patients to different facilities and could call on members of the Medical Reserve Corps for help.
In Tier Three, hospitals would reach more than 20 percent COVID-19 patient capacity. At this point, elective surgeries would be eliminated.
Tier Four is the state’s most severe tier and means admissions would go over 40 percent. In this tier, all surgeries that are not an emergency would be cancelled.
Stitt reminded Oklahomans Tuesday that it’s the entire state’s responsibility to continue to slow the spread of COVID-19.
“Just because we have room in our hospitals, does not mean this virus is over by any means. We need to continue to take this very seriously,” said Stitt.
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