February 10, 2021
Last week, the daily cases consistently averaged around 2,000 per weekday. Now, for the second consecutive weekday, our case count has been a level below that - 1,318 yesterday and 1,401 today (incl. 426 probables). There were 6,463 tests today, so the one-day positivity rate is 21.7%. According to BamaTracker and Johns Hopkins, the 7-day moving average for positivity is between 16.3% and 18.3%. All of these numbers are far closer to the infection rate we saw last July than January.
Hospitalizations continue to improve - 1,401 (oddly, the same exact number of current patients as daily cases - not a misprint) patients in 108 reporting hospitals, or 13 patients per hospital. That is the lowest average since November 21. While that is very good news, it is worth being reminded that this average is also higher than at any time between August 16 and November 21. In other words, although the horrific third wave of December-January has receded, we are still not out of the woods.
Lest you think otherwise, the deaths of 309 more Alabamians matches the record for reported deaths in a single day. All but 5 of those deaths occurred in January, which has now surpassed December as the deadliest month of the pandemic - 1,571 and still rising. Mortality data lag hospitalizations because deaths must be investigated before the cause of death is officially attributed. With hospitalizations on the decline, hopefully we will see fewer deaths in the days and weeks ahead.
According to ADPH’s updated dashboard this afternoon, 532.2K doses have been administered out of 900.5K doses received by the State (58.1%). For 3 straight weeks, Alabama has administered between 105K and 109K doses each week, or 15,285 doses each day. That equates to just under 1% of the 1.53 million average daily doses administered in the United States last week. If the State of Alabama met the national average vaccine distribution (per capita), it would have to deliver 22,666 shots per day, or 158,662 per week instead of 105,000-109,000. That would require a 48% increase in daily distribution.
Hopefully, the Biden administration’s decision to distribute 1 million doses directly to 6,500 pharmacies will make a difference. Those doses will be on top of what is allocated to state health departments. Alabama has designated Wal-Mart/Sam’s Club as the distribution outlets for these additional doses. This new phase of distribution will begin on Friday. Only time will tell if this new strategy works to accelerate Alabama’s distribution significantly. The totals:
1/27 - 3177
1/28 - 3648
1/29 - 2848
1/31 - 4057
2/2 - 2078
2/3 - 2118
2/4 - 2767
2/5 - 1496
2/6 - 1992
2/7 - 1112
2/8 - 925
2/9 - 1318
2/10 - 1401