Coronavirus

Masks Up, Health Department Advises as COVID Continues to Climb Again

It’s time for Alabamians who do not want to catch COVID to put back on their masks. That was the advice from the Alabama Department of Public Health this week as cases continued to increase across the state. After the state’s positivity rate dropped to single digits in the spring and hospitals cleared out their overflow patients, people began to think the pandemic was over. It is not. Hospitalizations have been rising in recent weeks, and 677 people diagnosed with COVID were in Alabama hospitals Friday, According to the Alabama Department of Public Health’s COVID dashboard. That’s the highest number since February, but it’s not nearly the almost 3,000 daily average COVID patients in hospitals in January. The state’s positivity rate, which shows the portion of people who were officially tested for COVID-19 and returned a positive result, has risen to 30.2%. Read more.

Birmingham Directs COVID Funds to Public Safety, Public Works and Councilors’ Projects

The Birmingham City Council voted Tuesday to allocate roughly one-third of its remaining federal COVID relief funds among the city’s police department, fire and rescue, public works and “district-specific and citywide council projects.” Read more.

Birmingham Area at High Risk of COVID Transmission

Every county in the Birmingham metropolitan area except Blount has been moved into the high-risk category for COVID-19 transmission. Jefferson County’s positivity rate has been rising and now stands at 25%, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health, and the county has had an average of 291 new cases a day for the past seven days. Hospital admissions in the county are up somewhat, with 10 more patients over last week, for a 2% increase. The swath of counties with high transmission risks means residents need to exercise more care, including making sure their vaccinations are up to date and wearing masks if they are at a high risk from the virus, said Dr. Wesley Willeford, Jefferson County Health Department’s medical director of disease control. He said health officials see no need now to issue mandates as they did in 2020. Read more.

Déjà Vu: Two Years Later, and Coronavirus Case Levels Are Virtually the Same

The number of new coronavirus cases a day in Alabama now is almost exactly the same as it was two years ago heading into Memorial Day. Cases have been trending upward for more than a month, and Alabama averaged 510 new cases a day in the 7-day period that ended Friday, according to information from the Alabama Department of Public Health. At this time in 2020, Alabama was averaging 501 cases per day. Read more.

As COVID Cases Creep Up, Health Officials Advise Watching Local Levels

Federal health officials have moved three northeast Alabama counties out of the COVID community low-risk category into a medium-risk level. The counties are Madison, Jackson and Limestone. The move comes after state health officials have watched the average number of statewide COVID cases grow from 100 a day around the first of May with a 2.5% positivity rate to 400 cases per day with a 9.4% positivity rate this week. Read more.

COVID Cases Tick Up in Alabama, but Don’t Panic

Alabama has been seeing an “uptick” in COVID-19 cases and positivity rates in the past few weeks, but a state health official said those aren’t necessarily signs that another spike is in the near future and he is “cautiously optimistic.” There were 784 new COVID cases reported over the past seven days, for an average of 109 new cases per day as of Wednesday. Reports on the ADPH website are delayed by a day. The state’s COVID positivity rate has increased from 2.2% at the first of the month to 3.4%.. Read more.

COVID Hospitalizations Fall Below 200

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Alabama hospitals dropped below 200 this past weekend for the first time since late March. Read more. The Pandemic, Two Years In

COVID Pandemic Closed Down Businesses, Schools and Sports and Brought a Sea Change for Health Care

Timeline: It’s Been a Long Time Since the World Learned of COVID on New Year’s Eve 2019

Educators, Psychologists Say Attending School at Home Hampers Students’ Development

Birmingham Grappled With Budget as COVID-19 Slowed Economy

Jefferson County Commissioners Pivot to Handle Unfamiliar Challenges

Fewer Cars on the Road but Traffic Deaths Rise

JeffCo, Birmingham Spend Federal Money on Housing Assistance, Other Needs

More than $359 million in federal dollars flowed through the hands of Jefferson County and Birmingham city officials in the past two years to help the area get through and get past the pandemic, and more money is yet to come this spring. Related: JeffCo Commissioners Pivot to Handle Unfamiliar Challenges; Birmingham Grappled With Budget as COVID-19 Slowed Economy

Birmingham Grappled With Budget as COVID-19 Slowed Economy

At first, Birmingham officials predicted that COVID-19 would have a dire impact on city coffers. Though officials had immediately responded to the pandemic by allocating $1.2 million to a loan program for small businesses that had been affected, by June 2020, business tax revenue had fallen by nearly 20%, leading Mayor Randall Woodfin to call the situation an “economic crisis” that would result in “painful” budget cuts. Read more.

Jefferson County Commissioners Pivot to Handle Unfamiliar Challenges

Tony Petelos brought a lot of government experience when he took the job as Jefferson County’s first county manager. He had been a state representative, a commissioner of the Alabama Department of Human Resources and mayor of Hoover. But Petelos – like nearly everyone else – didn’t have much preparation for dealing with a pandemic “We had almost none,” said Petelos, who recently retired. “When the governor in March of 2020 shut everything down and then we decided to open back up in May, it was, 'OK, how do we handle this?' And not just us. Everybody was flying by the seat of their pants as far as, ‘What do we do?’ ‘How do we do it?’ and getting it done. Read more.