The coronavirus news in Alabama this week was overwhelmingly positive. The vaccination system had its best week yet while hospitalizations and new COVID-19 cases continued to fall sharply.
Driving the success of the week’s vaccinations were a series of drive-in clinics held in eight cities around the state, each of which exceeded expectations for efficiency.
In the last seven days, Alabama’s average daily number of new coronavirus cases fell to a level not seen since before Halloween of 2020.
Hospitalizations continued to fall sharply as well, hitting a point not seen since before Thanksgiving.
Experts believe that the decline in new cases, which is being experienced in most of the nation, is likely attributable to a decline in the type of gatherings that occurred around the holidays.
When incorporating results rapid tests and other methods of new case detection, Alabama’s seven-day average of new cases from 968 to 1,335.
An especially encouraging sign to experts is that the percent of coronavirus tests that have come back positive over the last two weeks is down to 11.84%. During the worst of the winter surge, that figure was above 20%.
Generally, about 10% of COVID-19 cases need treatment in the hospital.
Over the course of the pandemic, hospitalizations have tended to follow the trends in new case data, with a lag of about two weeks.
Some national health officials have warned that new strains of coronavirus that originated in the United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa may soon halt the decline in cases the United States has experienced.
They maintain the best way to mitigate those strains is continued mask-wearing, social distancing and a willingness to get vaccinated when eligible.
The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) gave every county in the state either a “moderate” or “low” risk status in a report issued Thursday.
Alabama’s death toll from the virus is now estimated to be 9,180.
Of those, 7,204 have been confirmed by ADPH officials, with another 1,976 classified as coronavirus being the “probable” cause of death. Since the pandemic began, nearly every death listed in the “probable” category has eventually been confirmed to be from COVID-19.
Alabama’s best week yet of vaccinations capped a four week period where the system has largely been running at capacity, per health officials.
“Even though Alabama got off to a slow start, we are now giving everything we can give,” said State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris at a briefing in Montgomery on Friday.
Because there is a delay in the reporting of some vaccine shots, the total for the most recent week will almost certainly eclipse the others when the full data set is reported in the coming days.
When all the data comes in, Alabama will almost certainly have administered over 105,000 vaccine shots each of the last four weeks, a monthlong period during which Harris said the state was doing as well as any other in the country.
Harris reminded the public on Friday that a person is not considered fully vaccinated until two weeks after their second shot of the available vaccine products.
“We’re so close to being through with this,” Harris said of the pandemic on Friday. “We have a path forward with vaccinations.”
Alabama’s state health officer also pleaded with the public to continue wearing masks and social distancing.
“We’re still a few months away,” he said regarding vaccines being available to everyone.
A list of the clinics providing coronavirus vaccines is available here at the “vaccine providers” tab on the bottom of the page.
Alabamians age 65 and over, health care workers and employees in a number of front line professions are eligible.
Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: [email protected] or on Twitter @HenryThornton95.
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