Sen. Doug Jones reported Wednesday he is in quarantine after his wife tested positive for COVID-19 and he regretted missing a vote to override President Trump's veto of the defense spending bill. Read more.
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin has tested positive for COVID-19. He announced the news in a press release Wednesday evening that quotes him as saying his symptoms are “currently mild.” While the mayor is self-quarantining, he is “still handling matters of the city,” according to the press release. Read more.
Alabama added 5,016 new cases of COVID-19 and 37 deaths in Wednesday's daily update by the state Department of Public Health. The number of people in hospitals across the state for treatment of the coronavirus continued to rise and stood at a record 2,804 on Tuesday. That is up from 1,779 on Dec. 1. A total of 33,452 have been hospitalized since the pandemic began in March. The report brought the number of cases of COVID-19 in Alabama this year to 356,820. The state aeraged 3,179 new cases daily over the past week, up from 2,291 on Dec. 1. Read more.
The top immunologist at UAB is still casting a wary eye on spikes in COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations, but she is also taking heart in the growing number of people being vaccinated for the virus. Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, the director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at UAB Hospital, said in a press conference Tuesday that Alabama is setting some “unenviable” records when it comes to COVID data. “We are now number six in the nation, per capita, for COVID cases on average over the last seven days,” Marrazzo said. “It’s not a good place for us to be in the top 10. We had fallen out of that list for a long time.” Alabama is averaging about 3,300 new cases per day, but Marrazzo said that number is probably higher because of delays in reporting tests over the holidays. Read more.
With the number of people in Alabama hospitals for COVID-19 steadily climbing, the state recorded 3,907 new cases of the disease and 25 deaths from it in Tuesday's update. The Alabama Department of Public Health, in its daily report, said a record 2,802 people were being treated in hospitals for COVID-19 on Monday. The number has risen each day from a count of 2,403 on Christmas Day. UAB Hospital reported a record 207 COVID patients on Monday. The hospital's count had stood at 195 on Sunday. ADPH figures showed there have been 32,999 COVID patients in in Alabama hospitals over the course of the pandemic. Of those, 2,424 have been treated in intensive care units, with 1,394 on ventilators. Read more.
The Jefferson County Department of Health on Monday received its first allocation of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine.
UAB Hospital set a record Monday morning when it reported 207 COVID inpatients. That is the first time the facility has surpassed the 200 mark, and it’s nearly triple the number reported in mid-November. Read more.
The Alabama Department of Public Health reported 4,232 new cases of COVID-19 and 89 deaths in its daily update on Thursday. The state has recorded 338,801 cases of the coronavirus and 4,676 deaths from the disease since the pandemic began in March. The agency has reported an average of 4,067 new cases a day over the past week. Read more.
WBHM Labor officials cite safety concerns as the primary reason for moving to a phone-based system. Read more.
Workers on the front lines of Alabama’s battle with the COVID-19 virus lined up in the past few days for vaccines as the number of patients they are trying to help continues to increase sharply. In BirminghamWatch’s weekly analysis of pandemic data, the number of daily new cases has reached new highs yet again, with the 7-day moving average topping the 4,000 mark for the first time. Both moving averages set all-time records Wednesday, with the 7-day average standing at 4,132.71, an 80% hike since Dec. 1. The 14-day average is at 3,817.57, up 66.7% since the beginning of the month. For the first time since the pandemic began in March, the number of daily new deaths reached triple digits. The Alabama Department of Public Health reported 135 additional deaths Wednesday, and the 7-day moving average was 55.57 per day — an 82.6% increase in just one week. The 14-day average also reached a new high of 43.0, up 23.6% for the week. Read more.
