January 22, 2021
As the world enters its second year of the worst global health crisis in a century, the coronavirus has served notice that it won’t go down without a fight. The world is closing in on 100 million cases worldwide and 2.1 million deaths, while the U.S. hit 25.2 million cases and 420,000 deaths, according to worldometers.info. There are credible models showing that more than 600,000 Americans may eventually perish before this virus is vanquished. If so, that would approach the estimated 675,000 American casualties during the 1918 flu pandemic, one of the worst global health crises in history.
For the 2nd consecutive day, deaths in the U.S. topped 4,300. Before the beginning of this month, Alabama had exceeded 100 reported deaths in a single day only once - on December 23. With 107 more deaths reported today, it marks the 7th time this month that has occurred - and 80% of today’s reported deaths took place after Christmas Day.
ADPH also reported 3,551 new cases (incl 856 probables) and 8,127 tests today, leading to a 43.7% one-day positivity rate and 31% 7-day moving average. That represents an increase of almost 700 cases from yesterday. It’s unclear if this spike signals the start of another surge. I think it’s more likely that cases have leveled off at around 3,000 per day (the average for the last 4 days is 3,014), but the vexing thing about this virus is how unpredictable it is.
There was little change in hospitalizations in today’s report - 2,408 patients in 107 reporting hospitals, or 22.5 patients per hospital. Yesterday, there were reportedly 22.7 patients per hospital. Hospitalizations peaked at 3,081 patients on January 5.
ADPH updated its weekly K-12 dashboard today and reported 2,155 new cases among public schools statewide. The five school systems with the most new cases include Jefferson County (98, down from 129); (ii) Mobile County (96, down from 134); (iii) Shelby County (89, N/A); (iv) Montgomery Co. (80, up from 69); and (v) Baldwin County (79, up from 44). New weekly cases among the major municipal school districts in Jefferson County include: (i) Hoover (45, down from 80); (ii) Mtn Brook (29, up from 19); (iii) Trussville (24, down from 60); (iv) Homewood (23, up from 11); (v) VH (17, down from 31); and (vi) Birmingham (15, down from 21).
ADPH also updated its vaccine distribution dashboard, showing that 223,887 doses have been administered, of whom 174,317 have received just one dose. That equates to 3.6% of the State’s population. Only Missouri (3.5%) and Nevada (3.4%) have administered the first dose to a lower percentage of their respective populations.
Shifting gears (a personal privilege), I want to take a moment to pay tribute to someone whom I have idolized my entire life, a son of Mobile, who planted a seed when I was 5 years old that grew into a lifelong love affair with baseball that has never diminished - Henry Aaron. The Hammer died today at the age of 86, thankfully not of COVID but peacefully, in his sleep. In his selfless way, Aaron was vaccinated 2 weeks ago on camera to show his support for the vaccination program.
Heaven took a great ballplayer and a better human being this morning. R.I.P. Hank Aaron. The totals:
1/9 - 4863
1/10 - 2750
1/11 - 2100
1/12 - 3848
1/13 - 3147
1/14 - 3588
1/15 - 2945
1/16 - 3153
1/17 - 1917
1/18 - 1430
1/19 - 2515
1/20 - 3112
1/21 - 2881
1/22 - 3551
In the last 7 days, the most populous counties in Alabama had the following per capita cases: Lee (68 per 100K population); Calhoun (63 per 100K); Baldwin (61 per 100K); Montgomery (59 per 100K); Jefferson (58 per 100K); Morgan (53 per 100K); Shelby (50 per 100K); Mobile (48 per 100K); Madison (44 per 100K); Tuscaloosa (40 per 100K). The state average was 52 cases per 100K.