Oklahoma continues to rank dead last in the country for variant testing
OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — As COVID cases continue to soar across the state, experts fear new a variant worse than Delta could be emerging. It’s part of the reason why testing for variant strains is so critical right now. However, despite having the only designated pandemic center in the country, Oklahoma has ranked dead last in testing for variants of concern for months.
"Certainly, you know, it is important to know what variants are circulating within our state," confessedState Epidemiologist,Jolianne Stone.
While Stone partly blamed hospitals and labs for not sending them enough test results, "We have not received enough positive samples to do full runs of sequencing," she said.
She also admits suddenly moving the Pandemic Center for Innovation and Excellence to Stillwater put them behind.
"We were offline during that transition period," she explained.
- RELATED |Will you need a COVID-19 booster?
When asked how long the center was offline, Stone replied that she would have to look up the exact dates. But as of news time Wednesday, neither Stone nor the OSDH provided FOX 25 with that information.
In the meantime, former Oklahoma State Medical Association President, Dr. George Monks says the move was obviously a mistake.
"Every medical organization in the state was against it," said Dr. Monks, "It shouldn't have been moved away from the medical hub of our infrastructure in Oklahoma City and it certainly shouldn't have been done during the middle of a pandemic."
Another question the Health department failed to answer -- just how many employees they lost in the move.
"My understanding is they just haven't been able to hire back staffing to be at a level to really operate efficiently," said Dr. Monks.
According to Stone, the center’s efficiency is at least improving. They went from sequencing less than 70 tests in Feb. to nearly 900 in July, with a new goal of sequencing at least 400 tests a week.
"So certainly we are making multiple steps in order to get there and be what we want to be," said Stone.
"We've got to do better. We're stuck in first gear and we've got to shift gears," said Dr. Monks.
For more local news delivered straight to your inbox sign up for our daily newsletter by clicking here.