State Health Officer Scott Harris: ‘We think the next two to three weeks are really going to be a tipping point for us’

The worst is yet to come for Alabama regarding the coronavirus pandemic, according to State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris.

During an interview with APTV’s “Capitol Journal” host Don Dailey, Harris said mid-to-late April would be a “tipping point,” for which he said the state was bracing.

“We think the next two to three weeks are really going to be a tipping point for us,” Harris said. “What we hope we have done is prepare enough to be ready for any potential surge. We hope we have plans in place we can handle that should we get to that point.”

“There’s a lot of models out there about what the numbers may look like in Alabama, and they’re just that — they’re models, and they’re best guesses, and they’re estimates, and they’re a little bit all over the maps,” he continued. “But generally speaking, we believe somewhere between April 17 and up to April 22 or 23 is when we’re going to see peak number of admissions in our hospitals. And so, we’re really buckling down and trying to get ready for that.”

“We don’t have a good way to monitor those people right now in Alabama,” Harris added. “We have staff that are still tracking new infections and do contact tracing, and isolate people who have been exposed. Ultimately we’ll be able to monitor that a little better. But we know from around the world, more than 80% never get particularly sick at all and recover without any consequence.”

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly and host of Huntsville’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 2-5 p.m. on WVNN.