Survey shows third of Oklahoma schools don’t require masks

Despite warnings from state and federal health officials, a recent survey shows more than one-third of Oklahoma’s public school districts don’t require staff and students to wear masks.

The informal survey of public schools released on Thursday shows that about 65% of districts require either all or some students or staff to wear masks, but more than 35% of districts did not.

A White House Coronavirus Task Force report, released this week by state officials, shows Oklahoma has the eighth-highest coronavirus positivity rate in the nation and 12th highest number of new cases per capita. The report urged Oklahoma to impose a statewide mask mandate and order the closure of bars, but Gov. Kevin Stitt has resisted those calls.

“We’re going to keep seeing cases in Oklahoma until we start doing some public health interventions that have been shown to slow the spread of the virus,” said Dr. Dale Bratzler, chief quality officer for University of Oklahoma Medicine. “We keep dragging this out by not having a universal mask policy.”

State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister proposed a mask mandate for schools in counties with a high number of coronavirus cases, but the Board of Education narrowly voted to defer that decision to the state’s more than 500 individual school districts.

Meanwhile, state health officials on Friday reported 710 new confirmed cases of coronavirus and eight additional deaths. That brings the total number of confirmed cases in Oklahoma to 56,260 and the state’s death toll to 786.

The true number of cases in Oklahoma is likely higher because many people have not been tested and studies suggest people can be infected and not feel sick.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms that clear up within weeks. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the highly contagious virus can cause severe symptoms and be fatal.