TULSA, Okla. (AP) – A 40-year-old Tulsa police officer has died due to COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, police said Wednesday.
Officer Jerad Lindsey, who was serving as chairman of the Tulsa Fraternal Order of Police, died Wednesday, according to the statement, which did not say how he may have contracted the virus.
On Tuesday, Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum called on elected officials in neighboring cities without a mask mandate, as Tulsa does, to talk with hospital executives and public health experts about ways to stem the spread of the virus.
“This has truly become the situation that we talked about early on where we needed to work together as a region to protect the integrity of our regional health care system,” Bynum said.
Statewide, the Oklahoma State Department of Health on Wednesday reported an increase of 743 coronavirus cases and 13 additional deaths for a total of 119,152 cases and 1,286 deaths since the pandemic began in March.
The department reported 885 people hospitalized due to the virus, down from 907 on Tuesday and the record high of 956 on Friday.
