The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Alabama hospitals dropped below 200 this past weekend for the first time since late March 2020.

One hundred and fifty-six patients were hospitalized Sunday with COVID in the state’s hospitals, according to the Monday update from the Alabama Department of Public Health’s COVID dashboard. That’s a far cry from the almost 3,000 patients hospitalized in late January, when health care workers were warning that they were critically short-handed.

Only 33 new cases were reported by the health department Sunday

In Jefferson County, the positivity rate has fallen to 2%, and nine cases were reported Sunday.

Jefferson County still is considered at moderate risk of COVID spread. All of the counties in the state are either categorized as moderate or low rate of transmission.

Alabama also now has a positivity rate of 2.3%, meaning barely more than 2% of tests conducted returned positive results.

In total since the pandemic began in March 2020, Alabama has recorded 1,291,561 cases of COVID and 19,093 deaths from the disease.