TRANSCRIPT:
Dick Pryor: This is Capitol Insider, your weekly look inside Oklahoma politics, policy and government. I m Dick Pryor with eCapitol news director Shawn Ashley. Shawn, with about three weeks left in the year, Governor Kevin Stitt is issuing a new executive order to address the high numbers of coronavirus cases in the state and also the resulting stress on hospitals. Now, key to this new order is limiting the size of public gatherings. What is the rationale behind this approach?
Shawn Ashley: Well, one thing Governor Stitt and Commissioner of Health Dr. Lance Frye pointed out is that Oklahoma s seven-day average of new cases has remained fairly steady since Thanksgiving. There s been no big spike like many had expected. And the governor pointed out that the Centers for Disease Control says bars and restaurants and other large public gatherings are the primary source of community spread. And that s what the new executive order targets while keeping in place the limitations