February 3, 2021
From the standpoint of headline data, today looks a lot like yesterday. There were 2,118 cases (incl. 698 probables), compared with 2,078 cases yesterday, which equates to 35% of the reported tests. The question is, if twice as many tests were performed, would we have over 4,000 cases? We won’t know, for sure, because more attention and resources are appropriately being placed on vaccinations than testing.
Also puzzling is the increasing dichotomy between hospitalizations and deaths. Once again, the number of patients declined - 1,777 patients in 111 reporting hospitals, or 16 patients per hospital. The last time there were only 16 patients per hospital was in late November, so this is very good news, indeed.
On the other hand, the State suffered 309 more deaths, another new single-day record. All but 4 of those deaths occurred after Christmas (125 deaths between Christmas and New Year’s alone), which underscores the silent suffering experienced by so many Alabama families this holiday season. It is mind-boggling to consider that 5,230 Alabamians have died of COVID since Election Day, so far, compared to only 2,973 COVID deaths during the 8 months that preceded it.
Stepping back to compare how Alabama has fared during the past week to the national average, (i) our daily reported cases fell 17.8% compared to a drop of 15.7% nationally; (ii) our COVID-related hospitalizations fell 16.3% compared to 14.6%; but our deaths rose 15.7% compared to a decline of 6.1%, on average, in the nation.
Of course, the main story now is vaccines, vaccine distribution and the variants. The updated ADPH dashboard shows that 392.6K vaccines have now been administered out of 725K vaccines delivered to the State, or 54.1% of the State’s total. This is an encouraging statistic, and it shows the State is becoming more efficient at moving the doses out the door. According to national trackers, approximately 6.4% of our population has received one dose and 1.2% has received both doses. We still trail all but 3 states in both of these categories, but it’s an improvement. What’s more, there are mass vaccination events scheduled in February that will target persons needing the 2nd dose.
There are two news stories indicating that more help is on the way. First, the Biden administration announced it is moving to expand access to vaccines. Starting next week, 1 million doses will be distributed to some 6,500 pharmacies across the country, the White House said. The administration is also boosting by 500,000 the weekly allocation of vaccines sent directly to states, raising the total to 10.5 million. It will also make additional federal dollars available to states and local governments to cover previously incurred expenses relating to the pandemic.
Finally, there is news from Novavax that 110 million doses of its vaccine will likely be available in the U.S. by June, enough to vaccinate 55 million people. When you consider this additional Novavax supply and the soon-to-be-available Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the daylight at the end of the tunnel appears brighter and nearer with each passing day. The totals:
1/20 - 3112
1/21 - 2881
1/22 - 3551
1/23 - 3355
1/24 - 1728
1/25 - 1839
1/26 - 2900
1/27 - 3177
1/28 - 3648
1/29 - 2848
1/31 - 4057
2/2 - 2078
2/3 - 2118
Out of the 2118 how. Many jeff county and out of the 300 +deaths how many jeff county