Alabama ramps up fire as state crosses 35% fully vaccinated



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Alabama’s vaccination rate continues to accelerate as the state administered more doses last week than in any week since May.

Alabama administered 94,290 doses of the vaccine during the week ending Saturday, August 7, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health. That includes 18,824 doses reported on Friday – the most in a single day since May 18.

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More than 35% of Alabama’s total population is now fully vaccinated, but the state remains the last in the country on this measure. According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Alabama is just behind the Mississippi, which stands at 35.2%.

The United States as a whole passed 50% full immunization over the weekend. And several New England states report that over 60% of residents are fully immunized.

Alabama ranks a little higher on another measure. The state is 5th from the bottom with 45.5% of the total population having at least one dose of the vaccine. Mississippi, Idaho, Wyoming and Louisiana have so far seen a smaller percentage of residents receiving at least one first dose.

Most of the new doses administered in Alabama over the past month have been early doses. Second doses cannot be given for three to four weeks after the initial dose, so Alabama should start to see an increase in the number of people fully vaccinated within the next week or two.

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Lowndes County, in the black belt region of Alabama, is the most vaccinated county in the state. Over 39% of the total population there is fully vaccinated and almost 56% has at least one dose. Both are # 1 in the state, and the black belt in general leads the state in overall vaccinations.

And it doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Between the ADHD data updates on Tuesday August 3 and Tuesday August 10, each of the five counties that added the most new doses per capita were in the black belt.

[Can’t see the map? Click here.]

Wilcox, Perry and Bullock counties, each among the most vaccinated counties in the state, also had the most new vaccinations per capita during this period. Wilcox County leads the state with about 90 new doses of vaccine administered per 10,000 people.

The current increase in vaccinations comes as the state faces its largest increase in COVID-19 to date, with an average of more than 3,000 new cases of the virus per day and 2,000 COVID hospitalizations over the weekend -end.

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.



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