Oklahoma officials are expected to sharply curtail release of information related to the COVID-19 pandemic on Monday, taking down the numbers of infections, deaths and recoveries in nursing homes, ZIP codes, cities and small counties, said a health department source familiar with the decision.
The decision to stop publishing detailed data at the local level coincides with the expiration of the state’s Catastrophic Health Emergency Powers Act, which ended at midnight Sunday.
A check of the state’s COVID-19 dashboard on Sunday evening reflected the changes, with only about 20 counties showing detailed data. More than 3,000 of the state’s 6,500 positive cases were listed under the county category as “other.” A note said that category included counties with fewer than 20,000 people.
The section for city data was removed entirely. Similarly, there was no ZIP code data on the dashboard, a stark change from Saturday, which showed a ZIP code in the Guymon area with the state’s largest number of cases at 761. Many of those infections have been connected to the Seaboard Foods pork processing plant there. The state had been publishing ZIP code data on infections, deaths and recoveries since April 18.
Oklahoma Watch made multiple requests for detailed, non-private information for COVID-19 data in March and April. At the time, the requests were denied because the Oklahoma State Department of Health said the information couldn’t be released under federal and state privacy laws.
That determination changed by mid-April, when the state began publishing local data on its online data dashboard, including city and ZIP code information. Nursing home infection and death data has been published since April 7. More than half of the state’s 334 deaths from COVID-19 have come in nursing homes.
In announcing the data dashboard on April 16, then-Health Commissioner Gary Cox made no mention of offering the data only as long as the state’s catastrophic health emergency was in effect. Cox was replaced by new interim Health Commissioner Lance Frye after being unable to secure confirmation by the Senate.
Officials said late Sunday they are consulting with legal experts to see how the state might be able to offer additional COVID-19 data. The health department will continue to publish weekday reports on hospital capacity, personal protective equipment supplies and virus data on a statewide basis. It also plans to keep reporting a weekly epidemiological report.
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June 01, 2020 at 09:28PM
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Oklahoma Pulls Back on Releasing Coronavirus Data - Oklahoma Watch
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