May 22, 2020

May 22, 2020

On March 13, 2020, a resident of Montgomery became the first reported coronavirus case in Alabama. That was 70 days ago. By today, at least 13,670 Alabamians have been infected and 541 have died. Other Alabamians have surely been infected, some have died, but their cases were not included in official reports - perhaps because their county did not have a hospital.

Today was another sad day for our state. Another 382 residents of Alabama became COVID-19 statistics today and at least 15-25 of these people will die. Before May 5, we exceeded 300 daily cases only twice. Over the last 5 days, we have AVERAGED 380 new cases per day.

A leading virologist recently described COVID as being like an invasive lily in a pond that multiplies each day. After 30 days, the pond was completely covered by lilies. When asked when half the pond was covered, the owner of the pond replied, "On Day 29". Like the lilies, this virus contagion has the capacity to double each day if left to its own devices.

We don't want the coronavirus to start doubling each day in Alabama. We might avoid that by acting responsibly, wearing masks in public and observing appropriate social distance.

Here is the daily total of new COVID cases for the last 14 days:

5/9 - 293

5/10 -221

5/11 - 275

5/12 - 300

5/13 - 236

5/14 - 401

5/15 - 272

5/16 - 301

5/17 - 97 (reporting anomaly)

5/18 - 315

5/19 - 290

5/20 - 368

5/21 - 544

5/22 - 382