COVID-19: 'We're still going to get it. … But we do need to slowly and measurably be opening,' Gov. Stitt says

Gov. Kevin Stitt held firm Thursday night to his decision to begin allowing businesses that are closed because of the COVID-19 epidemic to begin reopening in the coming days.

“I will debate anybody who shows me some other stats,” Stitt said during a video town hall meeting with U.S. Sen. James Lankford. “COVID is still here in the state of Oklahoma. We’re still going to get it. ... But we do need to slowly and measurably be opening. That’s my message. I think it’s a good one, and I think it’s the message Oklahomans are ready for.”

On Wednesday, Stitt said personal care businesses such as hair salons and barber shops may reopen Friday for services by appointment only.

Other businesses, such as restaurants and movie theaters, may reopen May 1 with the permission of local governments.

Stitt said further restrictions will be lifted in phases in the coming months, depending on whether COVID-19 hospitalizations and other measures do not rise.

To prevent that, Stitt reiterated, social distancing and frequent hand-washing must continue, and vulnerable populations should remain isolated as much as possible.

Stitt said he has issued orders for all of the state’s nursing home residents and staff members to be tested over the next few months.

In Oklahoma, 40% of COVID-19 cases and 80% of the deaths involve older residents and their caregivers, Stitt said.

Viewers questioned Stitt about his COVID-19-related decisions and his methodology, which at least one person referred to as “flawed.”

Stitt said repeatedly that his “safer at home” strategy is not intended to completely defeat COVID-19 but to make it manageable.

The goals, he said, were to build hospital capacity and critical supplies and to “flatten the curve” so the state’s medical system is not overwhelmed.

Stitt noted that Oklahoma had 284 cases Thursday requiring hospitalization, about half the number of a month ago and a small fraction of the roughly 4,600 beds reserved for COVID-19 patients.

Lankford also warned against the idea that every person can be protected from the virus or that the epidemic’s disruptions will be easily overcome.

“This is not about making everybody whole,” he said. “We can’t make every business whole. We can’t make every family whole, can’t make every city and state whole. The federal government is not being made whole in all of this.

“We can’t borrow from each other, which is what we’re doing, over and over again and think there’s no long-term effect,” Lankford said.

“We need to be attentive to what we’re spending and not have the expectation that the federal government is just going to print money and have unlimited debt and have no challenges.

“We are all going to have challenges from this. Every family, every business, every state, every municipality and the federal government. We will all have consequences.”

Asked about the possibility of additional federal aid for Oklahoma, Lankford said he prefers to give states flexibility in spending the $150 billion allocated for them in the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security — or CARES — Act.

Oklahoma’s share is expected to be $1.6 billion, but under current rules it can be spent only on expenses directly related to the epidemic. Lankford said most of the financial problems states are dealing with are related in some way to COVID-19.