Despite a lack of media attention for the past few weeks, the coronavirus pandemic has not abated. Fortunately, deaths have gone down over the past several weeks, but cases have remained around 20,000. Let’s discuss an Alabama coronavirus update.
The Situation In Alabama
Alabama’s coronavirus cases have been up and down the past few weeks. Local 15 News is reporting that the numbers may have been under-reported at times. They spoke with Mobile County Health Officer Dr. Bert Eichold, who said a glitch in the system and a backlog in testing from labs may have contributed to the problem.
Alabama had its largest day of positive tests yet just yesterday, with 856 positive results reported. There have been over 22,800 coronavirus cases in Alabama in total, with 856 deaths from the disease.
Mobile County reported 59 new cases Tuesday. Dr. Eichold warned that due to under-reporting, one should watch the 14 day average rather than day to day numbers. Regardless of how accurate the day-to-day numbers are, Dr. Eichold said they were high enough that community spread was still occurring.
Testing
Testing may still be an issue. In another report from Local 15 News, a Baldwin County man recounted his struggle to attain a Covid-19 test. He ended up having to get tested in Mobile County after failing to get tested in his area.
Overall, Alabama has conducted over 278,000 tests. To put that number into perspective, Alabama has a population of 4.9 million. Mobile County alone has a population of 413,000.
Overall, the US has conducted over 23 million Covid-19 tests. There has been over 2 million positive tests, and over 116,000 deaths. The US has both the most cases and the most deaths in the world.
It has been several weeks since Governor Ivey launched her plans to reopen the state. Since then, we have seen record-high days of positive tests. Montgomery hospitals were nearly overloaded and had to redirect patients to other hospitals.
Despite these negative outcomes, the state has managed to weather the storm thus far. There has not been a systemic collapse of the health care system. It will take diligence from the citizens of the state to make sure we stay that way. Everyone should continue to follow the guidelines put forth by health care professionals.
We will continue to provide Alabama coronavirus updates in the coming weeks. You can stay up to date on the latest numbers by following sites like Worldometer.
**Edit** As of 5:00 PM, Alabama has reported an additional 865 new cases of coronavirus over the past 24 hours, which is a new record high.