[ad_1]
For the first time since the winter virus outbreak, Alabama is now reporting more than 100 deaths from COVID-19 per day.
Data from the Alabama Department of Public Health shows the state’s 7-day average for new reported deaths reached 106 on Tuesday, the highest score since February 8. The all-time high was 154 reported deaths per day on January 29.
[Can’t see the chart? Click here.]
On average, it takes about two weeks between when a death occurs and when it is reported to ADHD, which means deaths reported in the past seven days occurred earlier. This has been the case throughout the pandemic, as deaths have been a lagging indicator from the start.
The number of deaths in the state over the past week was boosted by several large increases in a single day. The state reported nearly 200 new deaths last Friday and added more than 160 on Saturday. After just one death over the weekend, ADPH reported 250 new deaths on Tuesday, the most added to the total in a single day since February 10.
These newly reported deaths might just be the start, as the state begins to understand just how deadly the Delta variant really was – and continues to be.
RELATED: As the delta wave slows, Alabama begins to count the dead
The latest increase in reported fatalities comes as Alabama’s duel with Delta appears to be slowing down. The state’s 7-day average for newly reported cases fell to just over 3,000 per day on Tuesday, from an all-time high of over 5,000 earlier this month. The state’s positivity rate on new tests is also dropping, and the number of hospitalizations for the virus has been plummeting in the past two weeks.
The number of COVID patients in public hospitals fell below 2,000 on Monday after threatening to exceed 3,000 earlier in the month. Unfortunately, these newly reported deaths likely play a significant role in this drop in hospitalizations.
“There are two ways that people leave the hospital, and one of them is not very good,” said Dr. Scott Harris, Alabama state health official, during his weekly COVID-19 press conference last week. “And while we have double-digit death tolls, that certainly explains, in part, the drop in hospitalizations we’re seeing. “
Alabama is starting to see the true toll of the delta and the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic as a whole. Since the very start of the pandemic, nearly 13,500 Alabamiens have died from the virus.
2020 was the deadliest year in Alabama history, according to Harris. It was the first year on record that more people died than were born in the state.
“Our state has literally shrunk this year for the first time in history,” Harris said in a COVID town hall held by AL.com last week. “Even going back to WWII when people served overseas, going back to the Spanish flu epidemic, going back to WWI, we’ve never seen this happen before in the state. from Alabama to COVID last year. “
It is possible that 2021 will be even worse. According to ADPH data, 7,183 of confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in Alabama, or about 53%, occurred in 2020. This year’s toll already stands at 6,277 and is growing every day.
Do you have an idea for an Alabama data story? Email Ramsey Archibald at [email protected], and follow him on Twitter @RamseyArchibald. Read more stories about Alabama data here.
[ad_2]
Source link