Tulsa metro area continues to get hammered by COVID-19, region now in Tier III of state’s surge plan

TULSA — Friday, the Oklahoma State Department of Health announced it has moved the Tulsa region on to Tier III of Oklahoma’s recently-revised hospital surge plan to combat COVID-19.

The designation comes as the result of Tulsa hospitals reporting for three days in a row that more than 20 percent of admitted patients had confirmed cases of COVID-19.

On Thanksgiving Day, the Tulsa region reported 21.9% of patients admitted to medical or surgical areas of its hospitals had tested positive.

The percentage of ICU patients confirmed to have the virus as of Thursday was sharply higher, standing at 39.8% according the numbers released by OSDH on Friday.

The latest “heat map” of zip codes in the Tulsa metro area released Friday show nearly the entire area continues to produce unacceptably high levels of COVID-19 cases, increasing fears that area hospitals could get overwhelmed.

Health care professionals have warned for weeks about the surge in coronavirus cases, and while the treatment and care of COVID patients has improved greatly, the sheer volume of new patients means hospitals are scrambling to keep up with demand.

Doctors and nurses complain of exhaustion, and administrators say they simply can’t continue for long under current conditions without having to make some hard choices about whom to treat, and whom to send home.

That includes decisions on what some call “elective” procedures, a term that makes many health professionals wince.

“Elective” procedures often involve major surgeries that can have a massive impact on the patient, including things like cancer biopsies and hip replacements.

The state did not release updated case numbers on Thursday or Friday, so Saturday’s report is expected to combine them into a single number.

Cox Media Group