coronavirus

Come Back With More Detail and We’ll Talk: Council Delays Plan for Rescue Money

Birmingham’s efforts to distribute millions of dollars of federal American Rescue Plan funding hit a snag Tuesday after councilors took issue with the vagueness of Mayor Randall Woodfin’s proposed allocations. Woodfin proposed to divide $53.1 million of the funds into broad “buckets:” $3 million for community-based public safety initiatives, $1.5 million to COVID-19 response, $18 million for neighborhood revitalization projects, $18.75 million for public transportation, $4.5 million for small business support, $1.1 million for employee vacation buyouts, $4.75 million for tourism and $1.5 million for grant writing and professional services to pursue other federal funding sources. Read more.

by Sam Prickett

Alabama’s New COVID Cases, Hospitalizations See Big Jump; CDC Updates Masking Recommendation

Alabama saw its highest number of new daily cases of COVID-19 since in almost six months on Tuesday, and hospital beds occupied by virus patients topped the 1,000 mark as the Delta variant continued to spread throughout the state and the nation. The Alabama Department of Public Health reported that the total number of cases since the pandemic began had reached 574,737, with an increase of 2,667 cases for the day. That’s the biggest daily hike since Feb. 4, when 2,767 new cases were reported as new cases were then on a downward trend after dangerously high numbers around the start of the new year. The hospitalization numbers from the Alabama Incident Management System showed a one-day increase of 167 inpatients, or 18.2%, infected by COVID. There are now 1,083 beds with virus patients, the largest number since Feb. 17. The hospitalization total has seen a sixfold increase since a low of 166 patients on June 20. Read more.

by Robert Carter

Alabama’s New COVID Case Total Sees Biggest Daily Jump Since Early February

Alabama saw its highest number of new daily cases of COVID-19 in almost six months on Tuesday, as the Delta variant continues to spread throughout the state and the nation. The Alabama Department of Public Health reported that the total number of cases since the pandemic began had reached 574,737, with an increase of 2,667 cases for the day. That’s the biggest daily hike since Feb. 4, when 2,767 new cases were reported as new cases were then on a downward trend after dangerously high numbers around the start of the new year. The 7-day average of new daily cases now stands at 1,775.14, which is more than 14½ times the average’s low point three weeks ago on July 6 and the highest level that average has seen since Feb. 8. Read more.

by Robert Carter

Alabama in Worse Shape for COVID Spread Than Most of Country, Marrazzo Says

The spread of the COVID-19 virus, particularly the Delta variant, is now worse in Alabama than in most of the United States. So says Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at UAB Hospital, who attributed the recent sharp increase in the number of new cases of the virus almost totally to Delta and the low percentage of state residents who are fully vaccinated. Read more.

by Robert Carter

ADPH Reports An Increase of 1,888 New Cases of COVID-19

The spread of COVID-19 in Alabama continued to accelerate Saturday, with the state Department of Public Health reporting 1,888 new cases in its daily update. The state has averaged 1,642 new cases a day since Monday, and health officials have blamed the rapid rise on the state's low vaccination rate and and the spread of the more contageous delta variance of the coronavirus. With about a third of the state's population fully vaccinated, the daily average number of new cases has grown from 121 on July 6. Read more.

by Birmingham Watch

Alabama’s COVID-19 Rate Grows, Hospitalizations Increase

Alabama's COVID-19 case count continued to rise Friday as the state Department of Public Health reported 1,733 new cases. There have been 567,243 cases in the state over the course of the pandemic, with an average of 1,238 new cases a day over the past week. The seven-day moving figure had dropped to 121 on July 6 but has steadily risen since then. ADPH said the number of people hospitalized for the coronavirus reached 727 Friday, more than triple the total of 204 at the beginning of the month. Read more.

by Birmingham Watch

COVID New-Case Rates and Hospitalizations Continue Upward Trend in Alabama

The state’s COVID numbers keep heading in the wrong direction, as the Delta variant of the virus is now present in better than four out of five people who test positive for the virus across the country. Thursday’s report by the Alabama Department of Public Health showed that new cases were down slightly from Wednesday but still high enough to push moving averages upward yet again. Alabama tallied 1,567 additional cases, down slightly from Wednesday’s 1,632 count. The total for the pandemic is now 565,510 cases in the state. Read more.

by Robert Carter

COVID Infections Top Levels Seen in February

The number of new cases of COVID-19 continues to rise at faster rates in Alabama, and hospital beds continue to fill with patients suffering from the virus. The Alabama Department of Public Health said Wednesday that 1,631 new cases were reported by hospitals and health care facilities across the state. It’s the third day in the past week that the number has topped the 1,300 mark and the highest daily number since early February, except for days when many previously unreported cases were sent by providers to the ADPH in what they call data dumps. Read more.

by Robert Carter

Tuberville, Fauci Discuss Crediting Trump to Encourage Vaccines

U.S. Sen Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., on Tuesday discussed Alabama's low vaccination rate with Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, and said that publicly giving more credit to former President Donald Trump for the rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccine would encourage more conservative skeptics to take it. In an exchange during a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Alabama's junior senator questioned the federal government's top health officials on a range of pandemic issues and urged them to adopt a message that appeals to Trump supporters who are skeptical of the Biden administration. "I think people need a unifying message from all of us because, in my state of Alabama, we don’t have everyone taking a vaccine, and we're having outbreaks as we speak,” Tuberville told Fauci. "You know, a lot of people voted for Donald Trump -- a lot of people in the South, a lot of people in my state. So Dr. Fauci, can you understand that unless this administration acknowledges the efforts of the last one, a large part of Americans, they're going to continue to feel like nothing's positive. They're not going to take the vaccine. You understand what I'm saying?” Read more.

by Todd Stacy, Alabama Daily News

Offering a Carrot Won’t Get People Vaccinated, Maybe It’s Time to Talk About the Stick, Health Official Tells Birmingham Council

COVID-19 cases are on the rise in Jefferson County, and offering incentives to persuade people to get vaccinated does not seem to be working, a public health official warned the Birmingham City Council on Tuesday. David Hicks, deputy health officer and COVID-19 incident commander at the Jefferson County Department of Health, said new daily coronavirus cases had increased fivefold in the past month. “In our county, we’re averaging 75 new COVID cases per day,” he said. “If you go back a month ago, we were averaging 13 cases a day … . The trajectory is troubling. Every week we’re seeing a doubling of the cases of COVID-19 being identified.” Thirty-six percent of Jefferson County residents are fully vaccinated, Hicks said, while 45% have received at least one dose of the vaccine. Read more.

by Sam Prickett