Around the state, local healthcare providers continue to go up against COVID-19 in a multitude of ways.
Hospitals and medical clinics across the state treat patients who have the virus, administer vaccines, and continue with safety precautions and preventive measures against the virus.
Luckily for Cordell residents, the local Cordell Memorial Hospital has done a good job at dealing with COVID in its facilities, according to hospital administrator Melinda Laird.
“We have not been overwhelmed with COVID patients as we were last fall,” Laird said. “There has been a low number of cases admitted to the hospital with COVID… We continue to require masks and screening when coming into the hospital and this includes coming to the ED.”
Since the Oklahoma State Department of Health began tracking case numbers at the start of the pandemic, Cordell has had a total of 391 cases.
Out of those cases, 371 have recovered and six have died, leaving 14 current active COVID cases in Cordell according to data provided by the state’s health department.
Health officials around the state continue to administer vaccines as there are currently 1,768,580 fully vaccinated individuals in the state. In Washita County 75.5% of those 65 years or older have been fully vacci nated and 46.4% of those 12 and older have been.
These continuously rising numbers are a factor to which Laird believes has attributed to the hospital’s low impact of COVID hospitalizations.
“The Family Clinic has been busy with vaccines averaging approximately 30 vaccines/ week,” Laird said. “We do feel that the number of vaccinated has been a positive impact on the low number of hospital admissions.”
Looking back, Washita County began to see an increase in the number of vaccines administered near the beginning of August according to Debra Johnson, the state health department’s Community Engagement and Health Planning Manager for District 5.
While contracting COVID while vaccinated is possible, referred to as a breakthrough case, data continues to show that positive COVID cases have been overwhelmingly affecting those who are unvaccinated. The state department’s weekly data report showed that from February of 2021 up to now, more than 90% of COVID cases have been from unvaccinated individuals.
Other towns in Washita County continue to deal with COVID as Burns Flat currently has four active cases, Corn has two active cases, Dill City has
12, and Sentinel has two.
According to the most recent weekly report published on September 8, shows 18,635 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Oklahoma from the previous week which was a 5.1% increase from the week of August 21-28. That same report shows that 208 deaths were reported in the past week which included 14 in Southwest Oklahoma, there were 3,079 COVID-19 hospital admissions in the state in the past month, and 93.9% of those hospital admissions were unvaccinated.
“The pandemic continuing has stressed our health systems across the nation and people who are caring for these patients are tired, it doesn’t seem to end. The best that we can do is to get our vaccination even if we have had COVID,” Laird said. “Studies have shown that the strongest immunity against COVID is the combined vaccine with history of COVID. The vaccine is effective for all aspects of the illness, for the better.”
COVID vaccines continue to be free for all and those in Cordell and surrounding areas can schedule an appointment at the Cordell Memorial Clinic to receive either the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccine on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays respectively.