October 27, 2021 - Short Update Tonight

Short Update Tonight

October 27, 2021

This will have to be a short update tonight.

For the first time in months, there was a massive data dump on the ADPH dashboard today - 7,393 new cases - and ADPH had this to say about it: “[ADPH] is onboarding a large laboratory that has not previously reported COVID-19 results to ADPH. Over the next two cycles of data entry, a large number of cases may be added to the Dashboard. Some of these cases will be from previous months.”

The effect of this data dump presently is unclear. ADPH attempted to adjust its daily case counts to reflect when a case occurred versus when the case was reported. Bottom line: ADPH estimates that the 7-day average, based on the date of occurrence, is 509 new cases per day, compared to 590 new cases per day exactly one week ago. It makes no sense to me how the addition of over 7,000 previously unreported cases could cause the 7-day average of new cases to go down instead of up. Yet, that is what ADPH has said, so I will give them the benefit of the doubt until I see more data in upcoming days.

Meanwhile, Alabama’s hospitalization rate has dropped to 475 confirmed patients in 108 reporting hospitals (4.4 patients per hospital) - a 15% decline from October 23, the date of my last newsletter. Since that date, 28 more Covid-related deaths have been reported, bringing Alabama’s overall total to 15,432.

As for vaccinations, an average of 9,300 doses per day were administered over the last week, pushing the percentage of those who are fully vaccinated to 44.4% of the entire population. Alabama ranks 47th in the nation in that percentage ahead of only West Virginia, Wyoming & Idaho.

In general, I am encouraged by the falling hospitalization rate and death rate. Sometime next week, I expect the CDC will give emergency use approval to the vaccination of children aged 5 through 11. It remains to be seen how much effect that will have on the vaccination rate in Alabama, given the increasingly strident war of words being waged by certain elected officials on vaccine mandates.

That’s it for tonight. I will return with another update at the end of the week. The totals:

10/14 -1,050

10/15 -1,143

10/16 - 786

10/17 - 544

10/18 - 338

10/19 - 961

10/20 - 665

10/21 - 1,065

10/22 - 1,598

10/23 - 945

10/24- 414

10/25 - 301

10/26 - 943

10/27 - 7,393