Nearly a month after the state’s first nursing home residents died of COVID-19, many of Oklahoma’s long-term care facilities are struggling to find enough gowns and other protective equipment needed to prevent infections.

Family violence is escalating in parts of Oklahoma as the stress of the pandemic mounts. Weeks of isolation, financial strain and fear are heightening tensions, and some agencies say they have seen the effects.

Many rural communities across Oklahoma have been hesitant to implement restrictions or closures, especially on businesses, partly because the fast-spreading coronavirus has not yet reached their edges.

For people fighting depression, anxiety or other mental illness, isolation can be more frightening than the coronavirus.