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2,627 New Coronavirus Infections In Oklahoma

Updated September 10 at 12:54 p.m.

2,627 new infections of the coronavirus were confirmed in Oklahoma on Friday, for a total of 577,312 since March 2020.

Oklahoma is reporting an average of 2,352 infections per day in the past week.

Oklahoma’s Provisional Death Count, which reflects COVID-19 deaths based on death certificates, stands at 9,496. That’s an increase of 81 deaths from the previous day’s report.

Just 45 percent of Oklahoma’s population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, placing Oklahoma in the bottom 12 states for vaccine rollout.

2,462 New Coronavirus Infections In Oklahoma

Federal and state officials are preparing to administer COVID-19 vaccines to millions of children should Pfizer’s shots be approved for kids ages 5 to 11.

The White House announced Wednesday that the government has the supplies needed to vaccinate 28 million children — if the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control give the green light. If approved, the vaccines will be delivered at a smaller dose and with smaller needles than what is used for adults and adolescents.

It’ll be a rigorous process before a vaccine is approved for younger children, said Dr. Donna Tyungu, a pediatric infectious disease specialist with OU Health. Currently, only children 12 and older are eligible for the shots.

If it meets the high bar set by those federal agencies, which will review data from Pfizer in making their decision, “everyone should be very comfortable that the risks outweigh the benefits and … we should be open to receiving the vaccination,” Tyungu said.

The FDA is set to meet Tuesday to review a possible authorization of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for kids ages 5 to 11, and the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee is set to meet in early November.

More Oklahomans are reaching fully vaccinated status in ZIP codes that have been lagging most of the summer, according to the latest biweekly vaccination data from the Oklahoma State Department of Health.

The statewide COVID-19 vaccination rate was 46.6% this week, compared to 54.7% nationally, the health department said in its weekly epidemiology report. But pockets of the state, including some ZIP codes in the southeastern part and near the Interstate 44 corridor, moved closer to the state average, according to an Oklahoma Watch analysis of the vaccination data.

Vaccine appointments are available to anyone aged 12 and older. Additional dose appointments for the immunocompromised are also available.

The latest data shows 138 ZIP codes had vaccination rates higher than 40%. That compared to 111 ZIP codes in that category two weeks ago, the analysis found. (The state’s vaccination tracking system doesn’t include doses administered by tribes or federal entities.)

The pace of vaccinations has leveled off after rising in the second half of the summer as cases, hospitalizations and deaths rose amid the more infectious delta variant of the coronavirus. More than 53,000 doses were given last week, compared to 59,000 in the first week of September. The weekly rate had been as high as 96,000 in mid-August, the health department said.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma reached another grim milestone on Thursday with the COVID-19 death toll surpassing 10,000 people. That’s equivalent to one out of every 400 Oklahomans. The great majority of the deaths have been among residents older than 65.

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