Active COVID cases top 100 in Kay County

Kay County has more than 100 active coronavirus cases for the first time in months as the delta variant spreads, health officials reported Monday.

Data from the Oklahoma State Department of Health on Monday showed that Kay County had 5,561 cases of the virus, 105 of which are active. Officials said 5,328 Kay County residents have recovered from the virus, and 128 have died from it.

State officials report that there are 4,055 cases of the virus in Ponca City. Eighty-four people there have died, and 3,908 have recovered. Blackwell has 722 cases, with 668 recoveries and 28 deaths. Newkirk has 465 cases, with 450 recoveries and six deaths.

Braman has 27 cases, with 24 recoveries and one death. Tonkawa has 388 cases, with 367 recoveries and 15 deaths. Kaw City has 67 cases, with 64 recoveries and three deaths. That leaves the town with no active cases.

The state health department does not provide data on coronavirus cases in some of the state’s smallest towns, including Nardin in Kay County.

Earlier this year, the department changed the way it counts coronavirus cases and deaths. The department includes provisional data from the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control on its website. Those numbers are higher than the state’s investigated total number of cases.

The department’s investigated numbers show that the state has 486,232 cases of the virus. Of those cases, 15,540 are active. Statewide, 7,531 people have died from it.

The CDC’s provisional numbers show that the state has 496,347 cases of the virus and 8,797 deaths.

More than 1.6 million Oklahomans have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The state health department said Monday that more than 1.9 million Oklahomans have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Between 30 and 39.9% of the county is fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

For more information on vaccinations, visit https://oklahoma.gov/covid19/vaccine-information/vaccine-faqs.html.