TAHLEQUAH â In the April 29 Health Sub-Committee meeting, Public Health officials told Tribal Councilors that the Cherokee Nationâs efforts to mitigate COVID-19 in its reservation is working.
Dr. David Gahn, Public Health medical director, gave a presentation showing where the state of Oklahoma and CN are at in slowing the virusâs spread using vaccines and other efforts.
âIn Oklahoma, you can see how the curve has flattened. Weâre hanging around 240 to 250 cases per day. And thatâs been steady for a while,â Gahn said. âSo Cherokee Nation, our average right now is five cases per day. Itâs gone up in the last couple of days, not significant. We were down between two and four for many weeks and just this week it went up a little bit. Every one of these cases is being investigated and contact tracing is being done.â
TAHLEQUAH â Ongoing COVID-19 prevention efforts helped dramatically lessen the fluâs grip on the Cherokee Nation this season, according to the tribeâs Public Health medical director.
âThe flu has been very gracious to us this year,â Dr. David Gahn recently told tribal leaders. âIt really hasnât had a huge impact on our health care delivery system. Since Sept. 1 of last year, weâve had 161 people hospitalized with influenza compared to almost 19,000 for COVID-19.â
Eight flu-associated deaths have been reported this season within the CN. In contrast, the 2019-20 season ended with 85, along with more than 3,500 hospitalizations. The two previous seasons also saw thousands of flu cases and even more deaths â 135 and 288.