Alabama reported 3,705 new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday, bringing the weekly average of new daily cases to 2,097, six times the average the state was experiencing at the start of the month. Read more.
Alabama as a whole is now classified as being at high risk of COVID transmission as cases skyrocket just days before Christmas. On Thursday, 2,060 new COVID cases were reported, giving the state a 1,173 7-day average for new cases, more than triple the daily average at the start of the month. The omicron variant has spurred COVID increases across the country. The variant is far more infectious than earlier strains but tends to cause milder illness, though it still can be extremely dangerous, particularly for people with other health conditions, and still carries the risk of inflicting sufferers with long COVID. Read more.
This holiday season, many incarcerated people are seeing their loved ones for the first time since March 2020 due to COVID restrictions. Read more.
The explosive growth of the highly infectious omicron variant and a rapid rise in COVID cases since Thanksgiving prompted several officials and physicians to raise the red flag Tuesday. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin and Jefferson County Health Officer Mark E. Wilson suggested that a new surge in cases could overwhelm local hospitals and urged people to get vaccinated. Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at UAB, said the spread of omicron is now being compared to the measles, one of the most infectious agents known to man. Other news on the COVID front: Jefferson County is now classified as having a high rate of community transmission. Vaccines not as effective against omicron and monoclonal antibodies ineffective. Preventive measures urged. Recommendations for holiday travel. Marrazzo: “This virus is just weird. It’s a weird virus that has been unpredictable and has done things that we haven’t seen with other respiratory viruses. So I’d just really respect it.” Read more.
This story was originally published by ProPublica. Portable generators can save lives after major storms by powering medical equipment, heaters and refrigerators when the grid collapses. But desperate residents who rely on the machines to keep their families safe sometimes end up poisoning them instead. The devices can emit as much carbon monoxide as 450 cars, according to federal figures. They kill an average of 70 people in the U.S. each year and injure thousands more, making them one of the most dangerous consumer products on the market. Read more.
Christmastime is here, and now the omicron variant of COVID-19 is as well. The Alabama Department of Public Health announced Thursday that the fast-spreading variant, first reported in November in southern parts of Africa, has been found in a patient in Alabama. The ADPH was vague on details because of federal privacy laws but did say that the infected person was tested after noticing symptoms earlier in December. The resident had not traveled outside the state recently and lives somewhere in the West Central Public Health District — an area that includes Tuscaloosa, Bibb, Walker, Lamar, Fayette, Pickens, Sumter, Greene, Hale, Perry and Chilton counties. Omicron arrives as COVID numbers in the state already have started to rise. Alabama and Jefferson County both were on the cusp of dropping into the ‘low’ category for community transmission just a month ago. Now both are listed in the substantial transmission category, the third-highest of four risk levels. Under health department recommendations, the change means that everyone, even those who are fully vaccinated, are advised to wear masks in public indoor settings. Health officials also have stepped up their efforts to encourage those who are not vaccinated to get a vaccine. Read more.
The Jefferson County Commission will likely approve the purchase of at least 123 Lucas chest compression devices. The sheriff’s office requested the funding from American Rescue Plan Act funds to purchase 250 of the automatic CPR devices at a cost of $17,980. The plan was for 138 of the devices to be deployed to 49 entities throughout the county. The timing of the matter is sensitive as a price hike of 7% per unit is expected after the first of 2022. Another 138 Lucas devices were previously purchased with monies from the Care Act. Commissioners were concerned that the devices need to be in more isolated locations where ambulance response times have been especially long. Commissioners noted the need to have devices in county senior centers and in schools. Read more.
For Birmingham K-12 students, the McWane Science Center has been a key field trip destination where students climb on interactive exhibits, touch stingrays and learn about fossils. It’s a place students look forward to going to every year. It’s especially exciting for 8-year-old Olivia Ragland and her friends. “I mean this is my second field trip this year, and it’s already been fun,” she said. “So, I’m just happy.” It is a complete 180 from last year, when Olivia said she felt sad that school was boring. Many students in Birmingham spent the 2020-2021 school year online because of the pandemic. Many field trip destinations were closed as well. But with schools adapting to the pandemic, in-person field trips are back too. Read more.
Omicron has still not made an appearance in Alabama — yet. But the delta variant of the COVID virus is going strong, and new cases are increasing after a three-month downtrend. In BirminghamWatch’s periodic analysis of the spread of COVID through Alabama, the number of daily new cases has nearly doubled over the past 10 days, and hospitalizations also have ticked upward, though not by much. The increases have moved Alabama back into the substantial risk category, the highest of four categories used to classify community transmission of COVID, according to information from the Alabama Department of Public Health. The virus had backed off enough that the state was almost into the low risk category one month ago. Read more.
There’s a lot more we don’t know about the new omicron variant of COVID-19 than what we do know. Dr. Suzanne Judd, a professor and epidemiologist at the UAB School of Public Health, told reporters in a Tuesday morning online conference that the variant first discovered in South Africa is spreading rapidly in that region, but there are many unanswered questions about how severe the symptoms might be for those infected. “The truth of it is, we just don’t know enough about it. We have things that we think about the omicron variant based on what is coming out of South Africa,” Judd said. “We think it spreads more rapidly than delta. This is based on the fact that South Africa is having a huge surge in cases of COVID, despite the fact that they already battled a delta wave almost at the same time that Alabama (did). “We think it may be less virulent, which means it may be less severe, less likely to put people in the hospital, but still spreading quite rapidly.” Read more.
