November 5, 2020 - 18 States With Record Hospitalizations
18 States With Record Hospitalizations
November 5, 2020
The deadly coronavirus has demonstrated this week that it will not pause for anything or anybody, not even a nationwide general election. While the country was transfixed by politics, the number of daily COVID cases steadily climbed - from 89,000 on Monday to more than 94,000 on Election Day, then to a record-shattering 108,389 cases on Wednesday, the day after the election, when some anti-maskers mockingly claimed the virus would disappear. Instead, as Americans anxiously waited to find out who their next president will be, 18 states — including Kansas, Tennessee, Virginia, Oklahoma, Montana, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio, Nebraska, Minnesota, Indiana, Wisconsin and West Virginia — reported record numbers of patients hospitalized with COVID-19.
While our heads were turned, the virus also chose this moment to claim 2,908 more lives, as many Americans as died on 9/11.
Since my last post on Sunday, Alabama has reported 3,792 cases, averaging 1,264 per day. After crossing the 3,000-death milestone yesterday, 20 more Alabamians died of COVID-19 today, taking our overall total to 3,026. These data likely persuaded Gov. Ivey to extend the expiration of her mask order to December 11.
ADPH reported another 1,381 new cases today (incl 230 probables) and 7,495 tests. The case count slightly exceeds the average for cases over the last 7 days (1,356) and the test count does the same (7,348 daily average for 7 days). Our one-day positivity rate is 18.4% and our average rate over the last 7 days is 18.56%, which is the 6th highest in the nation - behind only the Dakotas, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas and Wyoming.
From the start of this pandemic until now, Alabama ranks 6th in the nation in per capita cases and 45th in the nation in per capita tests. Alabama continues to have the widest gap in the nation between rankings in these two categories, which is not a prescription for gaining control over the transmission of this virus.
Finally, there are now 994 patients in 104 reporting hospitals statewide in Alabama. So far, at least, Alabama’s hospitalizations have not approached the crisis levels seen in some other states. The totals:
10/23 -1287
10/24 -1178 - 1769
10/25 -1079
10/26 - 967
10/27- 1115
10/28 -1269
10/29 -1443
10/30 -1347
10/31 -1789
11/1 - 1700
11/2 - 907
11/3 - 1037
11/4 - 1848
11/5 - 1381
Two counties had more than 100 cases today - Jefferson (186) and Madison (119). No county has a 14-day positivity rate below 12%, while 45 out of the State’s 67 counties have rates above 20%, 12 have rates above 30%, 3 have rates above 40% and 1 above 50%.