TULSA, Okla. — Tulsa Mayor GT Bynum spoke to the KRMG morning news on Monday as Phase 4 of Oklahoma’s vaccine rollout began.
Mayor Bynum telling KRMG the vaccine rollout in Oklahoma has been something he’s extremely proud of.
“The systems that the State Department of Health and the Tulsa Health Department and our Tribal Governments put in place, they’re a finely tuned machine at this point,” Bynum said.
In fact, Bynum says, the vaccine rollout is among the best in the entire country.
“On any given week, Oklahoma is between 6th and 8th in the whole country for the deployment of the vaccine per 100,000 people,” said Bynum.
Even more good news; new Coronavirus case numbers and hospitalizations in Tulsa County continue to improve. Mayor Bynum was again asked when the City Council would consider dropping the city’s mask mandate.
Tulsa has had a mask mandate in place since July of 2020.
Mayor Bynum says he spoke with city council members along with Dr. Bruce Dart at the Tulsa Health Department and announced they will address dropping the mask mandate on April 9th.
“What we’ve decided is, we’re gonna circle back up on April 9th, because all of our hospitals have asked us to hold off for two weeks after spring break. And then evaluate the data... as far as hospitalizations and COVID levels after that.”
Bynum says his team will receive the most recent COVID numbers the day before the 9th, and those numbers will determine if the mask mandate is ended. He did indicate, however, he was leaning toward the side of ending the mask ordinance.
“I will tell you if [new COVID data] continue to look like they have during the last several weeks, I’m fully supportive of ending it at the earliest possible time,” Bynum said. “I’ve always said we’re putting [the mask mandate] in place to protect the ability of our hospitals to save lives in our community. It’s not to get us to zero [cases] as the Governor has said. That’s not the purpose of the mask mandate.”
Mayor Bynum said he wants to avoid a spike in new COVID cases and hospitalizations Tulsa County saw after Christmas.
You can listen to the full interview with Mayor Bynum and the KRMG Morning News here.