Oklahoman
The Oklahoma Senate on Wednesday unanimously approved Gov. Kevin Stitt s appointment of Dr. Lance Frye to serve as the state s commissioner of health.
Frye, who oversees Oklahoma s Health Department, has become the governor s most public-facing political appointee for leading the state through most of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In May, Stitt tapped Frye to serve as health commissioner after the Oklahoma Senate declined to confirm Stitt s previous appointee, Gary Cox, partly because Cox lacked the qualifications required by state law.
In a statement, Frye said he is humbled to serve Oklahomans and excited to work with the Legislature for the betterment of the state.
Chastity Laskey, USA TODAY NETWORK
Some 26% of people living in Oklahoma County are fully vaccinated as of April 13, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC considers someone fully vaccinated two weeks after they ve been given a single-dose shot (Johnson & Johnson) or a second shot (either Pfizer or Moderna).
Oklahoma reported 443,882 total cases of coronavirus, an increase of 0.85% from the week before.
The five counties with the highest percentage of their population fully vaccinated in Oklahoma as of April 13 are McIntosh County (30%), Alfalfa County (29%), Kiowa County (28%), Caddo County (28%) and Craig County (27%).
For a county-by county look at the vaccination rollout, see our COVID-19 vaccine tracker, which is updated daily.
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Oklahoman
The Oklahoma State Department of Health has asked all vaccine sites across the state to immediately pause giving Johnson & Johnson vaccinations after two federal agencies recommended doing so, citing extremely rare cases of blood clotting in people who had received the one-shot vaccine.
In a joint statement early Tuesday morning from leaders of the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the agencies recommended a pause “out of an abundance of caution.”
They pointed to six U.S. cases of a severe type of blood clot in people who had received the vaccine less than one in a million of the more than 6.8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine that had been distributed in the U.S. as of Monday.