Oklahoma Shatters Previous Single-Day COVID-19 Record

Oklahoma has had another day with more than 500 cases of Covid-19 reported. The report for July 7 showed 858 new confirmed cases of the virus, jumping the total to 17,220 statewide. There were five more deaths reported, although none of them occurred in the past 24 hours. That raised the death toll to 404 statewide. There are currently 426 patients hospitalized with the virus and statistics show 13,005 recovered from the disease.

Blaine County now has two active cases, both in the Watonga zip code, bringing the county case count to 18 since the onset of the pandemic. The breakdown is two in Longdale, recovered, four in Geary, recovered, one each in Hitchcock and Okeene, recovered, and 10 in Watonga, eight recovered.

Nationally there have been 2,936,077 positive cases, up 47,442 since the last report, and 130,285 deaths, up 338 since the last report. There have been 924,148 recoveries, up 17,385 since Monday.

The Centers for Disease Control has compiled evidence that specific conditions increase the risk of serious illness from Covid-19. They include chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, obesity, weakened immune system from organ transplant, heart conditions such as heart failure, coronary artery disease or cardiomyopathy, sickle cell disease and Type 2 diabetes.

The CDC estimates up to 60% of American adults have at least one chronic medical condition. The chance of serious illness increases with the number of conditions a person has. Other conditions include asthma, high blood pressure, dementia, cerebrovascular disease such as stroke, and pregnancy.

For more information go to www.cdc.gov

Connie Burcham can be reached at Editor@WatongaRepublican.com