Oklahoma hits grim milestone, surpassing 10,000 deaths due to COVID-19

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – The Oklahoma State Department of Health has announced the state now has over 10,000 COVID-19-related deaths.

The state now has 10,025 provisional COVID-19 deaths and 603,161 total cases, per CDC provisional state data.

Over the past year, KFOR has shared the stories of many of those who lost their lives due to COVID.

“We know it doesn’t have to be this way,” said Oklahoma State Medical Association President Mary Clarke.
“We are dealing with a disease that is, the vast majority, preventable as far as the death rate’s concerned.”

Clarke stresses that vaccinations are one key way to decrease the amount of future deaths.

“We can predict how bad it’s going to get, but we can also predict how good it can be if we can get everybody to get vaccinated,” she said.

The new statistics mean that about 1 in 400 Oklahomans have now died of COVID-19. That’s at a higher per-capita rate than states such as Florida or Texas, but it’s still lower than states like Mississippi and Alabama.

Dr. Dale Bratzler, OU Health’s Chief COVID Officer, says there is a sign of hope as we progress to the fall with the amount of new COVID cases starting to slowly decrease.

“I’m hoping over the next couple of months that we see a continued steady decline,” he said.

He says there’s still a major X factor for the coming year.

“I think the one huge unknown, though, is will we see a different variant that pops up that becomes highly contagious, particularly in the winter months,” he said. “So, I think that that will be the wild card.”

Table of Total COVID Deaths Per State

	1 COVID Death Per:	Population	COVID Deaths	Last Update of State Data	Type of COVID Death Data	1 COVID death per (Using Probable and Confirmed Deaths Combined)
AL	358	4934193	13798	9/23	confirmed + presumptive
AK	1531	724,357	473	9/23	didn’t specify
AZ	381	7,520,103	19727	9/23	didn’t specify
AR	403	3,033,946	7528	9/21	previsional
CA	583	39,613,493	67928	9/23	confirmed
CO	760	5,893,634	7754	9/22	didn’t specify
CT	509	3,552,821	6981	9/22	confirmed	419
DE	561	990,334	1765	9/22	confirmed	513
FL	428	21,944,577	51240	9/17	provisional
GA	499	10,830,007	21709	9/22	confirmed	431
HI	1937	1,406,430	726	9/20	didn’t specify
ID	811	1,860,123	2293	9/22	confirmed	692
IL	508	12,569,321	24743	9/23	confirmed + presumptive
IN	458	6,805,663	14864	9/22	confirmed
IA	489	3,167,974	6482	9/21	didn’t specify
KS	493	2,917,224	5919	9/20	provisional
KY	596	4,480,713	7520	9/21	confirmed	532
LA	338	4,627,002	13702	9/22	didn’t specify
ME	1342	1,354,522	1009	9/23	didn’t specify
MD	599	6,065,436	10120	9/23	confirmed
MA	382	6,912,239	18118	9/22	confirmed
MI	481	9,992,427	20781	9/22	didn’t specify
MN	752	5,706,398	7592	9/23	confirmed
MS	470	2,966,407	6311	9/22	confirmed	316
MO	547	6,169,038	11276	9/21	didn’t specify
MT	562	1,085,004	1930	9/23	didn’t specify
NE	826	1,951,996	2364	9/14	confirmed
NV	456	3,185,786	6983	9/22	didn’t specify
NH	936	1,372,203	1466	9/22	confirmed
NJ	362	8,874,520	24515	9/22	confirmed	325
NM	446	2,105,005	4719	9/22	didn’t specify
NY	342	19,299,981	56434	9/23	didn’t specify
NC	668	10,701,022	16012	9/23	didn’t specify
ND	686	770,026	1122	9/23	confirmed	664
OH	542	11,714,618	21596	9/23	didn’t specify
OK	398	3,990,443	10025	9/23	provisional
OR	1176	4,289,439	3649	9/22	provisional
PA	441	12,804,123	29030	9/23	confirmed + presumptive
RI	376	1,061,509	2820	9/23	didn’t specify
SC	508	5,277,830	10386	9/23	confirmed	441
SD	424	896,581	2115	9/23	confirmed
TN	481	6,944,260	14450	9/19	didn’t specify
TX	483	29,730,311	61570	9/22	didn’t specify
UT	1158	3,310,774	2860	9/23	confirmed + presumptive
VT	2071	623,251	301	9/23	didn’t specify
VA	818	8,603,985	10523	9/23	confirmed	690
WA	1057	7,796,941	7373	9/21	didn’t specify
WV	604	1,767,859	2929	9/23	confirmed	506
WI	741	5,852,490	7895	9/23	confirmed	667
WY	608	581,075	955	9/23	confirmed
DC	609	714,153	1172	9/22	previsional