ADPH: More than 1.6M positive COVID-19 cases since 2020

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - UPDATE: The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) released the following statement on May 12, 2023:

The federally declared public health emergency for COVID-19 expired on May 11, 2023. For the past three years, the Alabama Department of Public Health has had access to a large amount of COVID-19 data, some of which had been required to be submitted to the federal government. As these requirements transition, COVID-19 will continue to be reportable in Alabama, but some data will no longer be available. The current COVID-19 dashboards will be modified to use the available data and to better align with data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The current Alabama COVID-19 dashboards updated for a final time the week of May 8 and will be available for archive purposes for an unspecified amount of time.

ORIGINAL: The Alabama Department of Public Health is reporting 1,659,936 positive COVID-19 cases in Alabama.

The Alabama Department of Public Health is reporting 21,138 deaths related to COVID-19 in Alabama.

In the last 7 days, 22,839 people have been tested and 839 positive cases have been reported.

The health department is no longer reporting presumed recoveries in Alabama. This is the statement from ADPH:

“The goal in data presentation is to provide the most accurate reflection of the pandemic’s effect on the population. As part of this visualization, a number of categories were used, including defining parameters for presumed recoveries.

Early in the pandemic, persons were presumed to have recovered from COVID-19 if they had not died more than a month after their illness onset or test date. With more recent developments in this pandemic, this estimate is less accurate. A small percentage of persons may become re-infected; and such persons could be counted twice. Additionally, some people experience a variety of post-COVID conditions more than a month after initial infection, even if they were asymptomatic. Thus, it may not be appropriate to classify persons with persistent or late onset symptoms as recovered. Post-COVID conditions are not reportable to public health at this time, so ADPH does not have data for these patients.

As the category, presumed recoveries, is not reflective of current information, ADPH will remove this category from the dashboard effective 05/27/21. Additional information may be provided in the future as we gather more data on this pandemic.”

As of May 11, 2023, there are 100 COVID-19 patients in hospitals.

Alabama began administering the Pfizer vaccine on Dec. 15, 2020 and the Moderna vaccine shortly followed. A single dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine was approved by the FDA on Aug. 23, 2021. As of May 11, 2023, there have been 6,763,523 vaccines administered.

Below you will find a COVID-19 tracker map (SOURCE: Johns Hopkins University) that tracks current hot spots by tracking the average of new cases reported weekly:

Below, you’ll find a dashboard provided and updated by the Alabama Department of Public Health. You can also view the dashboard by clicking here. You can learn more about Alabama’s administered vaccines by clicking here.

The map below, provided by the Alabama Department of Public Health, is a risk indicator for each county in the state. You can also view more of these details by clicking here.

You can find full coronavirus coverage from WBRC FOX6 News by clicking here.

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