Alabama sees increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations | Alabama News

MONTGOMERY, Alabama (AP) – Alabama is seeing a significant increase in COVID-19 cases as the hugely contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus continues to sweep the country.

Fifty-two of the state’s 67 counties now show high levels of community transmission, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health. Over the past week, 18.2% of COVID-19 tests in the state have come back positive.

The seven-day moving average of daily new cases in Alabama has nearly tripled in the past two weeks, from 540 new cases per day on December 11 to 1,586 new cases per day on December 25, according to University researchers Johns Hopkins. .

There were 528 COVID-19 patients in public hospitals on Monday. This has risen by nearly 200 in the past two weeks, but lower than in the previous two pandemic peaks, when there were as many as 3,000 COVID-19 patients in public hospitals and the state saw more 4,000 new cases reported every day. .

On December 16, state health officials said Alabama had confirmed its first case of the fast-growing omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Dr Jeanne Marrazzo, director of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said last week that places with low vaccination rates will face “overwhelming demand on the health system” as the omicron is spreading, although it is not as deadly as previous versions of the virus.

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