OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – Oklahoma officials have launched a new, color-coded COVID-19 alert system.

Gov. Kevin Stitt and Interim Health Commissioner Lance Frye introduced the new system during a news conference on Thursday.

The alert system is designed to give community members and local officials a method by which they can recognize and communicate COVID-19 risk levels in each county and guide health behaviors.

Click here to access the alert system.

The system is a four-tiered risk measurement tool that has corresponding color categories that identify the current COVID-19 risk level by county, according to an Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) news release.

“This new COVID-19 alert system marries OSDH’s robust data reporting with additional public health steps that should be considered county by county to confront elevated risks of community spread,” Frye said. “The color-coded system is an easy way for business owners, local leaders, and the public to know at a glance when extra precautions should be taken.”

The color categories are based on daily new cases per 100,000 population, the news release states.

OSDH will update the color-coded county map every Friday as part of its 11 a.m. Situation Media Advisory.

Updates will be based on the following 7-day rolling average:

• Green: 0 < 1.43 daily new cases per 100,000 population
• Yellow: 43 < 14.39 daily new cases per 100,000 population
• Orange: > 14.39 daily new cases per 100,000 population
• Red: > 14.39 daily new cases per 100,000 plus one of four additional gates triggered

OSDH will deem a county as being in a high-risk phase if the county is reporting more than 14.39 daily new cases per 100,000 and one or more of the following four thresholds occur in the state within a given week:

• Statewide ICU threshold: Percent of ICU beds available <5% statewide
• Statewide Medical/Surgical threshold: Percent of medical surgery beds available <5% statewide
• Statewide Ventilator threshold: Percent of ventilators available <5% statewide
• Facility PPE threshold: Average days of PPE on hand and available < 5 days statewide

State officials will work with local officials in red counties to develop a remediation plan.

“The red phase is triggered when additionally assessing statewide health system capacity definitions, assumptions and plans in the Oklahoma Hospital Surge Planning Toolkit and with assessing numbers based on hospitals’ bed capacity at 100%. This status indicates statewide, systemic challenges and pressures on the healthcare system resulting from COVID-19,” the news release states.

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