coronavirus

Committee to Analyze State’s Response to COVID-19

MONTGOMERY -- A new joint legislative committee responsible for analyzing how the state responded to the COVID-19 pandemic -- and help it prepare for future emergencies -- met for the first time on Thursday. “This is a fact-finding, not a fault-finding committee,” Sen. Tim Melson, R-Florence, said. He's a co-chair of the Alabama Pandemic Response and Preparedness Committee, which includes many of the state's top leaders and will put together a report on lessons learned in the last 15 months. “The goal of this commission is to move forward,” Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed, R-Jasper, said.  “We don’t need to throw rocks about what we maybe should have done, or could have done, or what we did." Read more.

by Caroline Beck, Alabama Daily News

COVID-19 Cases Rising Again in Alabama

The number of cases of COVID-19 in Alabama has risen steadily over the past week as the state’s vaccination rate remains among the lowest in the nation. The state averaged 227 new cases a day for the week that ended Wednesday, up from an average of 153 a day one week earlier. The Alabama Department of Public Health reported a total of 550,451 cases since the pandemic began in March 2020. Read more.

by Glenn Stephens

Lagging Vaccination Rates, Rising Delta Strain: How Gulf States Are Handling Latest COVID Concerns

WBHM With the lowest vaccination rates in the county, many people in the Deep South remain at risk. Read more.

by Shalina Chatlani, Gulf States Newsroom

Number of COVID Cases Down, but Alabama’s Vaccination Rate Continues to Lag

The good news for Alabama on the COVID-19 front is that the numbers of new cases and deaths continue to stay near record-low levels. The bad news is that vaccination rates are way behind most of the rest of the United States. In BirminghamWatch’s periodic analysis of the state’s COVID numbers, the percentage of Alabamians who have received their full vaccine regimen — a single injection for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, two for Pfizer and Moderna — is currently at 29.8%, according to the Johns Hopkins University rankings. That rate is the second-lowest among the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, with only neighboring Mississippi (27.2%) trailing Alabama. As of Tuesday, 1,481,073 state residents had the full dosage, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health, with 1,797,291 people getting at least one shot. Read more.

by Robert Carter

Extra Unemployment Benefits Ended Saturday

As of Saturday, Alabama’s unemployed workers will no longer receive extra federally funded benefits put in place to help people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gov. Kay Ivey last month announced she was withdrawing the state from those programs effective June 19. Read more about her reasons and the effects on the unemployed in BirminghamWatch’s original reporting. Governor Shuts Down Extra Help for the Unemployed, Says Workers Needed to Invigorate the Economy

by BirminghamWatch

Second Gentlemen Doug Emhoff Visits Birmingham to Encourage COVID-19 Vaccines

It felt like a pep rally Thursday at Jackson-Olin High School, where students, parents and community members lined up to get their COVID-19 vaccinations. Music, snow cones and cheerleaders pumped up the crowd for a visit from the second gentleman of the United States, Doug Emhoff. He and other members of the White House are

by By Kyra Miles, Report for America Corps for WBHM

Vaccinations Needed to Guard Against Possible Resurgence of COVID, UAB Professor Says

A professor from the UAB School of Public Health urged people who are on the fence when it comes to getting the COVID-19 vaccine to “jump off (and) give it a try.” “We've got millions of people that have been vaccinated with very few side effects,” Dr. Suzanne Judd said Thursday during a Zoom question-and-answer session with the media. “The most important thing is this pandemic could turn again in the fall, and you want to be on the side of being vaccinated if that virus starts circulating rapidly again.” She said the state may have dodged a bullet in terms of a COVID surge following Memorial Day, but there could be trouble ahead when Labor Day comes around if more people don't get vaccinated. Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

UAB Urges Vaccinations After Post-Memorial Day COVID Bump

UAB public health officials are encouraging everyone eligible to get vaccinated for COVID-19 as it sees an increase in hospitalizations in the aftermath of Memorial Day. Read more.

by BirminghamWatch

Why Alabama’s Declining Vaccination Rate Could Spell an ‘Uncomfortable Summer’

Close to 70% of Alabamians are still not fully vaccinated against COVID-19, but many people have stopped wearing masks and returned to normal activities. Read more.

by Mary Scott Hodgin, WBHM

State’s COVID Numbers Stay Steady Over Long Holiday Weekend

The three-day Memorial Day holiday weekend saw little change in Alabama’s COVID-19 data, with averages staying near lows not seen since the early days of the pandemic. In BirminghamWatch’s periodic analysis of COVID data, the 7-day moving average of new cases reported by the Alabama Department of Public Health on Thursday stands at 264.43 per day, which is the lowest that average has been since May 6, 2020. The 14-day average was nearly the same as the short-term mark at 271.29, its best level since May 13 of last year. The 7-day average has dropped from 278.14 a week ago; the 14-day average was not available last week due to a large influx of old, unreported cases that distorted new-case numbers over mid-May. The total caseload from the start of the pandemic is now at 545,028, or 10.9% of the state population of 5.03 million as measured in the 2020 Census. Read more.

by Robert Carter