Alabama coronavirus numbers are in free fall.
Many of the main measures used to track the pandemic have improved dramatically in recent weeks. This includes the number of new cases reported each day and the number of people being treated for the virus in state hospitals.
“I think we are more optimistic since it all started,” said state health officer Scott Harris at a news conference on Friday. “We see a way forward. I mean, we know how we’re going to get there now. And it seems to be working. “
The Alabama Department of Public Health reported 6,545 new cases of the virus this week – the lowest weekly total since the beginning of October.
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The record of cases reported in one week came in the first full week of 2021, when the state reported more than 28,500 cases. Since then, weekly cases have dropped by almost 80%.
“The message is that we are not out of danger, but we see how to get out of the forest,” said Harris. “And please, don’t stop doing the things you’re doing. This is not the time to relax in wearing your mask, or it is not the time to be in large groups of people and think that everything will be fine. “
The week’s low total cases caused the state’s 7-day average for new cases to drop to less than 1,000 cases a day for the first time in months. That number dropped to 970.7 on Thursday, before dropping further to 935 cases a day on Friday.
The last time the state’s 7-day average was so low was on October 12.
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The 7-day average has dropped 78 percent since January 10, when the state reported 4,281 cases a day.
Alabama hospitalization numbers have dropped similarly. The number of people being treated for the virus at state hospitals on a given day has dropped to less than 1,000 this week. State data show that 989 people were being treated across Alabama on Thursday. That number dropped again on Friday to 951 inpatients, with reports from 106 hospitals.
On January 11 – less than a month and a half ago – 3,084 people were being treated for the virus in Alabama hospitals.
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Harris on Friday compared the state’s current hospitalization numbers with what the state saw last summer.
“We are certain about 1,000 confirmed hospitalized patients in the state now. It is a number that we never reached, if I am not mistaken, until about June or July last year, ”he said. “You know, the really tough July and August that we had, I can’t believe we’ve been over 1,600. But we are below that level at this point. So this is certainly better than we have been since the beginning of the summer. “
Harris warned that there is still work to be done.
“1,000 people in the hospital are very sick,” he said. “I don’t want, you know, to try to sound too optimistic about this … We’re almost there. We have a few more months ahead of us. Continue to think about the people who are most vulnerable. Please think of our elderly and people with chronic health problems, who will not be well if they are infected with this disease and make sure that you are protecting them. “
Deaths reported due to the virus have also declined, although they are still higher than at any time in 2020. The state reported 393 new virus deaths this week – the lowest number since the first week of 2021.
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At the current rate, the state is on track to cross the 10,000 death mark later this month.
Meanwhile, the state continues its efforts to vaccinate Alabama’s population. ADPH reports that more than 717,000 doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines have been administered here.
More than 530,000 individuals received at least the first of the two jabs needed for the complete vaccine. This represents about 11% of the state’s population. Of these, almost 187,000 were fully inoculated – meaning they received both doses. That is about 4% of the state’s population.
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The state saw a huge jump in vaccines last week, but limited supply and winter weather kept this week’s numbers low. As of Friday, the state reported the lowest number of doses distributed in a week since mid-January, but data for this week are not yet complete.
For the first time since October, Jefferson County – the state’s most populous county – added less than 1,000 new cases in a week. Jefferson still added most cases from any county in Alabama this week in 742, but the number is significantly less than the totals he was seeing in December and January.
Mobile and Madison counties each added more than 500 new cases this week – the only other counties to do so.
You can see how many cases and deaths each county added this week and during the pandemic as a whole in the table below:
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Do you have an idea for a data story about Alabama? Send an email to Ramsey Archibald at [email protected]and follow him on Twitter @RamseyArchibald. Read more Alabama data stories on here.