Science

Technical Problems Delay Tuesday’s COVID-19 Report

The Alabama Department of Public Health said it was unable to post complete figures Tuesday on the number of new COVID-19 cases and deaths from the disease because of technical problems. The agency's daily update on Monday showed 675 new cases for a total of 110,769 since the pandemic began. There were six deaths to raise the total to 1,950. In an emailed statement, the department said it would include complete figures in Wednesday's update. Read more.

College Virtual Learning Rife With Technical Challenges

WBHM Several Alabama colleges and universities welcomed students back to campus last week. Since the pandemic began, many schools have shifted toward more virtual instruction. For some students, that has introduced a lot of technical headaches. Like thousands of students, Andrew Yarborough, a sophomore at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, finished out the spring and summer semesters with online classes. The transition wasn’t an easy one. “I had a lot of trouble with my online classes just because, for starters, they weren’t formatted very well,” he said. “They were rushed online.” “Also because, you really have to find what works for you and that’s a big shift to have to do immediately,” he said. Read more.

Restaurants Are Hardest Hit as Businesses Try to Rebound from Pandemic

This past weekend, the city of Birmingham held its third “Eat in the Streets” event, cordoning off parts of downtown for outdoor restaurant seating. The event was designed to give a revenue boost to restaurants affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has diminished customer turnout and placed many restaurants, which operate on razor-thin margins, in danger of closing. But for many Birmingham businesses, it’s already too late. Four months into the pandemic, many closures that owners hoped would be temporary are becoming permanent — consequences of an uncertain future and a tepid federal response. One barometer of COVID-19’s impact on local economies is the consumer website Yelp, which last month reported 132,580 business closures across the country since March 1. A steadily growing percentage of those closures — 55%, or 72,842, as of July 10 — are expected to be permanent. Restaurants are the most affected, Yelp found, with 15,770 permanent closures nationwide. The shopping and retail sector has experienced 12,454 permanent closures, while the beauty industry has seen 4,897. More than 2,400 bars and nightclubs, meanwhile, have shuttered for good since March 1. Read more.

675 New Cases, Six Deaths From COVID-19 Reported Monday

There were 675 new cases of COVID-19 and six deaths in Alabama for the 24-hour period ended at 10 a.m. Monday, the state Department of Public Health reported. The state has recorded 110,769 confirmed cases of the disease and 1,950 deaths from it since the pandemic began in mid-March. Another 5,898 cases and 74 deaths are listed as probably being related to the coronavirus. The state is averaging 882 new cases per day over the past week and 812 cases daily over the last 14 days. The two-week average is the lowest since June 30, when the average of 786. Read more.

COVID-19 Numbers Continue to Fluctuate, With 528 New Cases Sunday

Alabama's COVID-19 rate continued its fluctuations on Sunday, with 528 new cases and two deaths reported by the state Department of Public Health. The new figures raised the state's overall total to 110,094 confirmed cases and 1,944 deaths since the pandemic began in mid-March. In addition, 4,966 cases and 69 deaths were listed as probably from the disease. The daily number of new cases has ranged from a low of 516 to a high to a high of 1,220 over the past week. The average for the period is 859 per day. For this month, the highest number of cases was 2,013 on Aug. 2 and the lowest was 516 on Aug. 17. Read more.

Pamela Rush Fought for Environmental Justice Before Being Felled by the Coronavirus

Pamela Sue Rush, a resident of Lowndes County, died July 3 from complications related to COVID-19. Rush, 49, was a mother to a 12-year-old daughter and 18-year-old son. She also was a well-known activist who fought against injustice in poverty-stricken areas. Before she became ill, Rush spent the last two years of her life fighting for the poverty-stricken and those affected by systemic racism. She personally had been the victim of a predatory lender who charged her “almost 4 times the value” for her Lowndes County mobile home, which was dilapidated and surrounded by sewage drainage. Read more. More of Not Forgotten: Alabama’s COVID Dead

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The First Person Known to Die in Alabama After Contracting COVID-19 Never Let Her Disability Define Her

Alabama Shows Increase in COVID-19 Cases

Although the states cases of COVID-19 have been declining the past couple of weeks, the numbers have been rising again for the past few days. The Alabama Department of Public Health this morning reported 579 new cases of the disease since Friday afternoon. That’s after an increase of 1,183 cases on Friday. The department initially reported a much lower number of cases on Friday, 321. But later in the day, it reported that the number was artificially low because of problems processing the data. The total number of confirmed cases in the state is 109,566. Read more.

U.S. Surgeon General Helps Announce Three New COVID Testing Sites in Greater Birmingham

America’s top doctor was at the Riverchase Galleria today to repeat a common theme, that reducing cases of COVID-19 is a responsibility shared by everyone. “The way we do it faithfully is by lowering transmission and we lower transmission with the three W's: Wear a mask, wash your hands, watch your distance,” U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams said. “But we also do it by knowing who's positive so we can isolate and contact trace." Residents of central Alabama have a new tool in their effort to fight the spread of the novel coronavirus with the opening of surge testing sites that are equipped to test 1,500 people per day through Sept. 5. Those sites are the Sears parking lot at the Galleria in Hoover and Cathedral of the Cross in Center Point. Additionally, a third surge testing site will be at the Tuscaloosa Fire and Rescue Service Training and Logistics Center in Tuscaloosa. Read more.

Daily COVID-19 Count Shows Big Decline to 321 Cases

The COVID-19 count took another dramatic drop Friday, with the Alabama Department of Public Health reporting only 321 confirmed new cases for the latest 24-hour period.  That was the lowest daily count since 390 cases were reported on June 17. It brought the average daily number for the past week to 801, the lowest since an average of 764 on June 28. The figures brought Alabama's total number of cases since the pandemic began in mid-Marsh to 107,804; Friday's 16 deaths left the total at 1,921. Another 4,966 cases and 69 deaths are listed as probably associated with the coronavirus.  Read more.

Better Days: Alabama COVID-19 Numbers Are Headed in the Right Direction

The outlook for the COVID-19 outbreak continues to improve, as the number of new cases in Alabama trends downward for the fourth straight week. The number of deaths in the past seven days is the lowest since late June, and the positivity rate — the percentage of overall tests for the week that had positive results — has fallen to its lowest level in more than two months. In Birmingham Watch’s weekly analysis of data reported by the Alabama Department of Public Health, the 7-day moving average of new COVID-19 cases is 854.71 per day, down by more than 434 cases from the previous week and cut by more than half from the record high in July. The longer-term 14-day average is at 1,072, down by 301.5 from the week before and dipping to a level not seen since July 8. Read more.