The number of people in Alabama hospitals with COVID-19 fell on Thursday to about 1,000, the lowest since late fall.
The decline in hospitalizations, new daily cases and the percentage of positive tests – three main barometers of the severity of the pandemic – is an encouraging sign that the state has emerged from the record winter peak, said Dr. Don Williamson, the association’s president of Alabama Hospitals. An unknown question, however, is whether the state will see another peak with the spread of variants.
COVID-19 hospitalizations dropped from more than 3,000 on January 11 to 1,003 on Thursday, the lowest level since early November.
“Those are the best numbers we’ve seen since November,” “We’re going in the right direction if we don’t do anything to mess things up,” said Williamson.
Williamson attributed the drop in hospitalizations to both the drop in cases and treatment with monoclonal antibodies to lessen the severity of the disease.
Other states also recorded a drop in cases. Alabama ranked 22nd among American states in number of new cases per capita in the past 14 days.
The seven-day continuous average of new daily cases in Alabama dropped from 2,281 on February 3 to 1,014 on February 17, according to The COVID Tracking Project.
Williamson said it remains to be seen whether the state will see another spike in virus variants. At least eight cases of a highly transmissible variant that was first identified in the UK have been found in the state, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health.
The department said that many infectious disease experts indicated that current vaccines must be effective against the strain and that the variant was definitely not associated with worse results.
Since the start of the pandemic, more than 480,000 confirmed and probable virus cases have been reported in Alabama, and 9,424 people have died.
Alabama has so far distributed about 685,000 of the 1 million doses of vaccine it has received. The first figures suggest a racial disparity in those receiving the vaccine. So far, whites have received about 55% of doses compared to 12% for blacks. The numbers are incomplete, however, because the race of 28% of the vaccine recipients has not been reported. About 28% of Alabama’s population is black.
Tuskegee University and the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham scheduled a meeting at City Hall on Friday to answer questions about the vaccine and discuss vaccine hesitation among minority communities. The event will be held via Zoom and is open to the public and the media.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham and UAB Medicine said this week that nearly 21% of the 59,167 vaccines they administered went to individuals who identified themselves as black.
“Although our initial results are better than the national average for black communities, we are not satisfied and we will continue our efforts to increase reach among underrepresented groups,” said Dr. Sarah Nafziger, vice president of clinical operations for the UAB Hospital, in a statement.