Alabama COVID-19 hospitalizations climbed significantly in past month

Hospitalizations in Alabama have significantly increased in the past month, according to data from the state. 

On Tuesday, the state reported nearly 400 hospitalizations after data indicated that a month ago about 250 people were hospitalized in Alabama with COVID-19.

“We are a little concerned about how our numbers are trending,” Dr. Scott Harris, the head of the Alabama Department of Public Health, said on Monday, according to The Associated Press.

Still, Harris referred to the current figures as “very manageable” considering the system was caring for 3,000 COVID-19 patients each day at one point in the late summer. 

In August and September, officials feared the Alabama health care system would break under the strain of nearly full hospitals, the AP reported. According to data from Johns Hopkins University, there were multiple days in August when more than 5,000 new COVID-19 cases were recorded in the state, including one day when that number climbed above 11,000.

On Monday, Alabama’s Public Health Department reported 400 new cases, down from around 700 new daily cases some days last week.

The state has seen an uptick in infections in its schools, however, with 750 cases reported this week compared to 589 last week, the data showed.

Alabama has the nation’s second-highest death rate as a result of COVID-19 per capita and the 16th highest death toll from the virus in the nation overall, per the AP, which cited researchers at Johns Hopkins.

“There’s a storm coming and we need to get in our safe place, and the safest place we can be is with vaccines,” Dr. Michael Saag, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said. 

Currently, only about 47 percent of the population in Alabama is fully vaccinated.