The Alabama Department of Public Health reported Friday that another 15 Alabamians had died by the last day of the month, raising the number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths in the state to 1,531. July was by far the worst month of the pandemic in Alabama — with 605 Alabamians dying from the virus.
The high death toll in July translates into a rate of 19.52 deaths per day over the course of the month. At least 299 of the 605 deaths in July occurred in the last two weeks of the month — a rate of 21.36 deaths per day.
The state of Alabama entered the month with 37,536 diagnosed cases of coronavirus combined for March through June. Many of those cases had long since recovered. A largely apathetic public ignored all the warnings and insisted on parties, barbecues and vacations, often without masks, radically worsening the conditions on the ground in Alabama.
Another 47,742 cases of the novel strain of the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, were confirmed by the state department of health in July alone — more than doubled the number of cases diagnosed in the month of June, when 19,584 coronavirus cases were diagnosed in Alabama.
Nearly 56 percent of Alabama’s known cases were diagnosed just in July. Hundreds of them have died. 35,501 Alabamians, mostly from the previous months, have recovered from their ordeal, but most of Alabama’s cases are still considered active infections.
As of Aug. 1, Alabama has the seventh-highest per capita infection rate in the country — with 1,822 cases per 100,000 people, according to the New York Times. When limited to cases in the last seven days, Alabama has the sixth-highest rate in the country — at 239 cases per 100,000 people in the last seven days.
The state is entering August and pending schools reopening with 48,346 actively infected people living in the state — not counting the thousands or even tens of thousands who are infected and have not yet been diagnosed.
The state also set a new record for COVID-19 hospitalizations on Thursday at 1,642. Intensive care beds continue to be in high demand as hundreds fill hospitals.
While testing has increased, the percentage of tests that return positive rose dramatically through the month of July. On July 1, roughly 12.37 percent of tests were positive, based on 7-day averages of daily case and test increases. By July 31, that number rose to nearly 22 percent. Experts say that percentage — known as the positivity rate or percent positive — should be below 5 percent or many cases are going undetected and not enough tests are available.
On July 31, the Department of Public Health said “overwhelmed” labs and limited testing supplies are delaying testing results with most people taking at least a week to get their results back. Experts say test results that take that long are nearly worthless.
There are growing fears in business and government circles that the surging coronavirus cases could jeopardize what originally appeared to be an economic recovery. Already the Southeastern Conference, which includes the University of Alabama and Auburn University, has announced that it is moving the start of their college football season back three weeks from Sept. 5 to Sept. 26 to allow more time to assess the situation and plan for how they will play in the midst of the pandemic.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris have extended the public health emergency to the end of August. The order to wear a mask or cloth face covering has similarly been extended to August 31.
Congress is debating passing another coronavirus relief package but Capitol Hill is bitterly divided on how large this latest package should be. Meanwhile, there were another 1.5 million new unemployment claims filed last week.
