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State officials reported 666 new cases of COVID-19 on July 31, according to a dashboard operated by the Alabama Department of Public Health.
These numbers are lower than the week before, when cases averaged over 2,000 per day. The total number of cases for July 31 is the lowest in more than two weeks, but reports of new positive cases often drop on weekends.
Ministry officials delayed releasing Thursday and Friday case numbers as they updated the dashboard. On Sunday, the dashboard showed around 2,000 cases for July 29 and 1,327 for July 30.
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The Alabama Department of Public Health has classified all but three counties in the state as high risk for transmission of COVID-19. Infectious disease experts at the University of Alabama at Birmingham recently announced that almost all samples sequenced by the university’s labs were delta variants, which are more transmissible than other variants. Dr Michael Saag, professor in the department of infectious diseases at UAB, recently urged unvaccinated and vaccinated people to wear masks indoors.
Read more: Delta variant as contagious as chickenpox, experts say.
Alabama hospitals announced on Saturday they are treating 1,371 patients for COVID-19. That number has risen sharply since early July, when hospitals treated fewer than 200 patients for the virus. Last summer, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients peaked at around 1,500, and reached 3,000 during the winter wave.
Health officials and state leaders have urged Alabama residents to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as the state struggles with the lowest vaccination rate in the country. The average number of COVID shots has increased in recent weeks, but still lags behind spring.
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