November 14, 2020 - Saturday Without Football

Saturday Without Football

November 14, 2020

For the 4th consecutive day, Alabama recorded at least 2,000 new cases - 2,226 today (including 606 probables) - which pushes the 7-day rolling average to 1,913 new cases per day. On July 9, the rolling average touched a peak of 1,917 before declining over the course of the next 5 weeks. That record high in July will likely be broken tomorrow. 

There were also 12,280 tests, which produces a single-day positivity rate of 18.13%. The positivity rate over the last 7 days is approximately 22 - 24%, which ranks 6th highest in the nation, behind only a handful of states in the Midwest and Mountain West.

A November Saturday in the South normally means just one thing - college football. There is nothing normal about this Saturday, however, as 4 of the 7 scheduled SEC games were postponed due to COVID infections on the competing teams. In point of fact, over 30,000 students at SEC institutions have tested positive during this pandemic, and those institutions are listed in descending order as follows:  Florida (4461); Georgia (4198); Alabama (3037); Auburn (2947); South Carolina (2675); Kentucky (2475); Arkansas (2262); Missouri (2101); Texas A&M (2037); Tennessee (1820); LSU (1248); Ole Miss (781); Mississippi State (607); Vanderbilt (568).

Fifteen more Alabamians reportedly died from this virus, taking our overall death toll to 3,246. Deaths lag several weeks behind infections, so the toll being recorded now reflects transmission that happened several weeks ago, before the country began logging more than 140,000 new cases per day and hospitalizations reached their highest levels of the pandemic. Our neighboring state of Tennessee has seen 311 of its residents perish in the last 7 days, a record number of Tennesseans for any 7-day stretch. Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and New Mexico joined Tennessee in setting new records for deaths over any 7-day period, while Oklahoma, Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming established single-day records on Saturday for COVID-related deaths.

I know these numbers are discouraging, even overwhelming, after more than 8 straight months of continued vigilance. I will simply leave you with this. This is no time to let down your guard. Let’s keep the faith and get through the upcoming holidays safely because there is reason for hope very soon with the approval of one or more vaccines in December and the following weeks. The totals:

11/1 -   1700

11/2  -    907

11/3  -  1037

11/4 -   1848

11/5 -   1381

11/6 -   1556

11/7 -   1768

11/8 -   1205

11/9 -   1190

11/10 - 1720

11/11 - 2070

11/12-  2000

11/13 - 2980

11/14 - 2226

Jefferson County had at least 315 cases today, followed by Tuscaloosa County with 160 cases, Madison County with 153, Shelby County with 121 and Etowah with 103.