While Gov. Kevin Stitt said the state is starting to flatten the curve in the fight against COVID-19, rural county health departments are gearing up for a possible spike in the number of cases.

Maggie Jackson, District 2 Community Engagement director, said rural counties are farther behind in the testing cycle compared to Oklahoma City and Tulsa. District 2 consists of Canadian, Logan, Kingfisher, Blaine, Major, Garfield, Alfalfa and Grant counties.

“I think all rural areas are behind the larger cities. We are expecting the state to peak (number of confirmed cases) soon but the rural areas will peak after that,” said Jackson.

The reason for the longer timetable, said Jackson, is the rural counties began testing just over two weeks ago. The Canadian County Health Department opened appointment-based COVID-19 testing sites in El Reno and Yukon on April 7.

Prior to that, residents were being tested at one of the state sites outside the county borders, which were fewer than 15 for most of the month of March.

Canadian County Associate District Judge Bob Hughey, who was the first confirmed case in El Reno with the virus, was tested at the drive-up site at the Oklahoma City Fairgrounds on March 27.

The lack of supplies initially slowed the rural county health departments’ efforts. District 2 had a total of 250 testing kits to share between the eight counties on April 7.

The demand for testing in Canadian County was halted April 9 until supplies were replenished. Testing resumed a day later.

“The lack of supplies has really been an issue in the past but it has improved in the last week, but there were some bottlenecks in the supply chain,” said Jackson.

Jackson said the swabs needed to conduct the test have been in short supply. Also, the lab at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, which has been testing all the samples from Canadian County, was hampered due to the lack of the reagent needed to process the samples, said Jackson.

“The test kits are coming in. Last week we had a shortage that stopped testing but they are now available,” said Jackson.

Over the period of April 7-15, the two health department test sites in Canadian County conducted 163 total tests, with Yukon having administered 90 tests and El Reno 73.

The results of those tests have been delayed beyond the two- to three-day turnaround window.

“That was how long it was taking but the OSU lab has seen a big surge. They are catching up but we are not sticking to the two- to three-day commitment. We are telling people that a nurse will call them,” said Jackson.

Jackson said the high volume in Canadian County, especially Yukon, was not expected.

“We didn’t know what to expect since there are other health-care providers testing as well. We have seen a spike in demand and we were having to put people on waiting lists due to the backlog of appointments,” said Jackson.

A drive-up site was to be held Friday in Yukon so residents could be tested without making an appointment with the health department. Appointment-based tests are still being done in El Reno and Jackson said another extra site, like the one in Yukon, could be added here if needed.

“Both El Reno and Yukon have been averaging 15 to 20 tests a day but we wanted to give Yukon a try first because that office was getting the most appointments and had the waiting list,” said Jackson.

The number of people seeking tests is expected to rise, said Jackson, since the state has relaxed some of the restrictions to qualify. Instead of showing several symptoms, she said a person need only show one of the signs of cough, fever or shortness of breath.

Also, if someone has been in direct contact with a person who has had a laboratory-confirmed positive test for COVID-19, they can also get tested.

The exact number of tests administered in Canadian County is still unknown, but the 163 tests given at the health departments have yielded two positive results as of April 15.

“We don’t have that data (total tests in county) at this time. Hospitals, Urgent Cares and private doctors are all conducting testing. They report positive tests but we do not have the number of how many tests total have been conducted so it’s difficult to gather a total number of negative tests,” said Rae Johnson, one of the public information officers for the state health department’s COVID-19 Incident Command.

Among the eight District 2 counties, there have been 88 total positive tests for the virus and five deaths. The majority of those cases are from the two counties that border Oklahoma County, those being Canadian with 63 positives and three deaths and Logan with seven confirmed cases.

“We are very hopeful that we started social distancing and other measures before the virus hit in rural Oklahoma. We are testing in all counties but there has not been a huge need for testing in many rural parts. That doesn’t mean we are out of the woods yet and people need to keep doing a good job of social distancing.

“We have not hit the peak yet and we need to keep doing all the measures still, but they are working,” said Johnson.

Sixty-four of the state’s 77 counties have at least one confirmed case of the virus, with Canadian County having the seventh highest number of positive cases and is tied for ninth for the most deaths in the state.

The five counties which border Oklahoma County are Canadian, Logan, Cleveland, Lincoln and Pottawatomie. Canadian has the second highest number of confirmed cases and deaths among the five, behind Cleveland with 294 positives and 18 deaths.

Those numbers are staggering compared to the first day of testing in Enid, in Garfield County. Jackson said 98 swabs were taken that day and none came back positive.

“That shows the extreme measures like keeping people at home and social distancing is working. However, Canadian County has a lot of traffic in and out of Oklahoma County so the numbers are going to rise,” said Jackson.