April 3, 2021 - Hallelujah

Hallelujah

April 3, 2021

It is astonishing how rapidly the vaccine rollout is going throughout the United States. More than 4 million shots were administered for the second consecutive day yesterday. Already, 105 million Americans have received at least one shot, including about 56 million people who have been fully vaccinated by J&J’s single-dose vaccine or the two-dose series made by Pfizer and Moderna. At this pace, the CDC says that 90% of adults in America will be fully vaccinated by June 16, unless, of course, they refuse to get it.

In Alabama in the last week, an average of 28.8K doses per day were administered, a 9% increase over the week before. Overall, Alabama has administered at least one dose to 1,234,131 people, covering 25.2% of the state’s entire population (national average = 31.4%). At least 658,897 people have been fully vaccinated, or 13.5% of the State’s population (national average = 16.9%). Yes, our vaccine rollout has been slower than other states, mainly due to an extremely slow start, but it’s hard to complain on the day after the announcement of universal eligibility.

In 15 counties, more than 30% of the population has received at least one shot, including 9 of the 11 Alabama counties with majority black populations in the Black Belt - Macon, Greene, Lowndes, Wilcox, Bullock, Dallas, Perry, Hale and Marengo. The other 6 leading counties include Jefferson, Lee, Tallapoosa, Conecuh, Henry and Colbert counties.

On this same day last year, there were 269 new daily cases. That number eventually climbed to over 5,000 per day in January. Today, there were 349 reported cases, which is the fewest for any week day since last spring. Last year on this day, the positivity rate was 18.5% and rising. Today, that rate is 11.6% and falling. There were just 312 patients in 98 reporting hospitals today - 3.18 patients per hospital. To find the State’s hospitalization rate that low, you would have to go back to April 7, 2020.

Only 3 states - Kansas, California and Arkansas - have had fewer cases per capita than Alabama in the last week, while the states responsible for the recent uptick in cases nationally are mostly located in the Northeast and Upper Midwest - states like Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. These are the states that bore the brunt of the initial onslaught of this pandemic and they may be struggling to control the variants. As Alabama gets prepared to lift its statewide mask mandate, we hope and pray to avoid that new challenge.

All in all, on this second pandemic Easter, I believe that hope is finally here to stay. Hallelujah. The totals:

3/21- 373

3/22- 319

3/23- 10 (due to “technical difficulties”)

3/24- 922

3/25- 427

3/26- 442

3/27- 492

3/28- 319

3/29- 228

3/30- 361

3/31- 408

4/1 - 478

4/2 - 400

4/3 - 349