Gov. Stitt Talks About Oklahoma's Coronavirus Situation, Reopening State

Gov. Kevin Stitt held a press conference on Friday to give updates on the COVID-19 crisis in Oklahoma.

“We have 325 hospitalizations across our state, right now,” Stitt said. “That number peaked at 560 back on March 30 and for the last two and a half weeks we have continued to trend down.”

Even though that is good news, the state has still been preparing for a surge at the end of the month.

“One hundred and ten hospital beds at the Baptist Portland Avenue campus will serve as Oklahoma’s level two surge facility,” said Tim Pehrson, Integris president and CEO.

If the curve continues to flatten, Stitt said he hopes Oklahoma will be able to start opening back up at the beginning of May. But, he said things won’t look normal for a while.

“The restaurants are working up their plans,” Stitt said. “But, it will look a little different. We will have the tables spaced out and then we will continue to monitor, and over time, it will get back to normal.”

Stitt said he plans to give another update on their plans to open the state back up next week.