State health officials are pressing the message that Alabamians need to protect themselves as COVID-19 cases in the state continue their sharp increase. Read more.

As of Friday, there have been four days this week when the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 went over 600, marking the highest period for hospitalizations since the pandemic began in March. Read more.

A UAB doctor said Wednesday that stay-at-home orders had kept the lid on the number of COVID-19 cases but with reopening, Alabama is “seeing the case counts go up.” Read more.

UAB epidemiologist Dr. Rachael Lee today said that Alabamians will have to exercise personal responsibility to keep the state’s increasing COVID-19 infections from overwhelming the health care system.

Lee said that the increasing number of positive cases is “concerning,” particularly as the state increasingly relaxes restrictions and as the number of tests administered remains steady. Alabama is one of several states being watched because the number of confirmed positive cases of the potentially deadly viral infection are going up.

Lee held UAB’s weekly coronavirus press conference the day after the largest single day increase in coronavirus cases in the state. She addressed a wide range of questions during the more than 45-minute-long press conference, dealing largely with the spike in cases, hospitals’ nearing capacity in some areas, how the coronavirus differs from the flu, remdesivir, the feared second wave and the ongoing need for personal protective measures. Read more.

Alabama hospitals lost about $739 million in revenue from mid-March to the end of April because of the coronavirus outbreak, according to data collected by the Alabama Hospital Association. 

The state’s 93 acute care hospitals had $101 million in COVID-related expenses, including personal protection equipment, in the seven-week period. 

“Obviously, that’s not sustainable,” Alabama Hospital Association President and CEO Dr. Don Williamson told Alabama Daily News. He previously served as Alabama’s state health officer.
Read more.

A recent survey by the Alabama Nursing Association shows that nurses on the frontlines of the COVID-19 battle have been concerned about a lack of personal protection equipment, their own health, taking the virus home to their families and having the needed time to spend with patients isolated from their loved ones.

Others, furloughed by public health orders that stopped elective surgeries and procedures, worried about paying their bills and even their own health insurance. Read more.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham and Southern Research of Birmingham will be part of an international program that will try to identify existing drugs that may be effective in treating people exposed to COVID-19.

The effort, coordinated by Scripps Research of La Jolla, California, involves ReFRAME, a large collection of drugs developed for other diseases and known to be safe for humans, UAB said today.
Read more.

An Alabama National Guard team was disinfecting at the Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home this morning as part of a mission to stop the spread of the Covid-19 virus at nursing homes around the state. 
The team, part of a special Guard task force, arrived in a white bus at the Pell City-based facility, one of four state veterans homes in Alabama. The Howard facility has 246 residents and 346 employees.
Read more.

LOCATION UPDATED — UAB will provide testing for COVID-19 in two community locations this week, offering the tests for people who cannot or don’t want to go to its downtown testing site, officials said today.

A mobile testing unit will go to Rock City at Central Park in the western area of Birmingham on Thursday from 1 to 3 p.m. and to Cathedral of the Cross in Center Point on Friday from 1 to 3 p.m. They will see people who have made appointments by calling 205-975-CV19 (2819). Participants must drive up to the mobile facility this week, but walk-up appointments are expected to start as early as next week. Read more.