Alabama is among the top 10 states across the country this week in cases of COVID-19 per capita and in hospitalizations, which alarms UAB epidemiologist Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo.
“Alabama is now experiencing some unenviable records,” said Marrazzo, director of the UAB’s Infectious Diseases Division, in a media call today. “We are now 6th nationally per capita in Covid cases in the past seven days and we are behind states like California, Arizona, Rhode Island, Oklahoma, Tennessee.”
The situation may be even worse than the numbers indicate due to the holidays, she said.
“It’s not a good place for us to be back in the top 10 on that list,” said Marrazzo. “We’ve been off that list for a long time. We have an average of 3,300 cases per day in the state. If you look at last week’s averages, I must warn you that this figure is probably underestimated, as we know that we always have test delays, not only on weekends, but also on holidays that fall on long weekends. So, I think we can see a huge increase in the number of reports in the coming days, again, explaining the fact that the New Year’s holiday is coming. For example, on the 27th, only more than 4,000 tests were reported, and more than half of them were positive, so this is not the complete picture of what is happening.
Alabama ranks third in hospitalizations per capita, behind Nevada and Arizona, she said. “Unfortunately yesterday, 2,802 people were hospitalized in the state, and this is a new record,” said Marrazzo.
Covid’s case count is especially high in northern Alabama counties, which probably reflects the impact of Tennessee, “which is also in a very, very dire situation,” she said.
With 1.3 million people traveling across the country on December 27, things are likely to get worse, she said. “This is likely to herald a peak at the top of a wave at the top of a peak,” said Marrazzo. “We haven’t really recovered from the Thanksgiving reverberations yet.”
UAB Hospital currently has 186 actively confirmed cases of COVID-19 under treatment, compared with 207 yesterday, which was the first time UAB broke the 200 barrier, she said.
“The UAB reflects a lot the other hospitals in the state,” said Marrazzo. “Everyone is really being pushed to the limit. It is not enough that we cannot take care of people, and I want to emphasize that, but we are really being overwhelmed. ”
The state added 25 COVID-related deaths today, to a total of 4,737, and hospitalizations jumped to 2,804 today, the highest number reported since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
UAB is preparing for a possible scenario in the coming weeks of up to 400 patients with COVID – almost double the high point so far, she said.
“This will potentially affect every person who uses our health care system,” she said.
The UAB Hospital has vaccinated about 6,000 people so far, said Marrazzo. Across the state, more than 20,000 have been vaccinated since last week.
Vaccinations have been slower across the country than expected. “It is taking a long time to increase,” she said. “I don’t think it’s happening as fast as we would like.”
People should not stop wearing their masks just because some people have been vaccinated, she said. “The vaccine is not a passport to a society without masks,” she said.
For those who are still afraid to wear masks to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, Marrazzo said he is beyond exasperated.
“If you continue to do so, you will be responsible for more deaths,” she said.