Rural and urban Oklahomans have different mortality rates from COVID-19 and the gap is widening. The split between urban and rural experience of COVID-19 is getting wider, the disparity between them, said Dr. Jennifer Clark, faculty lead for OSU Center for Health Sciences Project ECHO. 96 deaths per 100,000, relative to, kind of, 79 deaths per 100,000 in the urban section.
Dr. Randolph Hubach, associate professor of rural health at OSU Center for Health Sciences, described that as a huge disparity. I think there s a couple things that start to come into play, Hubach said. One of them is the current infrastructure for public health and medical in rural areas. We know that our hospitals and clinics are overburdened.
Paul Monies / Oklahoma Watch
As active coronavirus cases remain above 30,000 in Oklahoma, the state health department says its contact tracers are having to prioritize calls and will advise most people with confirmed cases to do their own contact tracing.
In addition, the state has shuttered a contact tracing call center in Oklahoma City paid for by federal CARES Act money. A related contract for additional temporary contact tracers continues but the Oklahoma State Department of Health is looking for additional funding to keep those positions in the new year. Weekly reports from this fall show just how far behind contact tracers and case investigators were getting as cases continued to rise.