The Alabama Department of Public Health reported Thursday that 18 more Alabamians have died from COVID-19. These latest deaths raise the state’s total COVID-19 death toll to 2,507.
At least 324 Alabamians have been reported dead from COVID-19 thus far in the month of September alone.
The state of Alabama currently has 81,117 active diagnosed coronavirus cases including 1,053 new cases on Thursday. At least 64,583 Alabamians have recovered from their coronavirus infections. The state has had a total of 148,206 confirmed and probable cases of the novel strain of the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2.
More than 3 percent of the state’s population has already been diagnosed with the coronavirus. This is the fourth highest rate of infection in the country and higher than every nation on Earth except Qatar, Bahrain, Aruba and French Guiana. The national average is 2.17 percent.
The state also has the ninth highest number of active coronavirus cases in the country, even though the number of cases per day has dropped significantly since peaking in July. Alabama is No. 41 in the country in coronavirus testing.
At least 768 Alabamians are hospitalized with COVID-19 on Wednesday, down from Aug. 6 when 1,613 Alabamians were hospitalized with COVID-19.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey’s July 15 statewide mask order is being credited with the improvement in the COVID-19 numbers.
Roughly 54 percent of those who’ve died in Alabama were white, and 39 percent were Black. That disproportionate rate of death is despite just 25 percent of known cases being among Black people. Some 4 percent of deaths were persons of unknown race, and 2 percent were of another race.
More than 77 percent of Alabamians who have died from COVID-19 were aged 65 or older, and 18 percent were ages 50 to 64. Persons ages 65 and older were just 17 percent of diagnosed cases. Alabama is No. 21 in total number of COVID-19 deaths and No. 20 in deaths as a percentage of the state population.
The states that have been hit the hardest by COVID-19 are New York with 33,193 deaths, New Jersey with 16,213, Texas with 15,629, California with 15,402, Florida with 13,796, Massachusetts with 9,362, Illinois with 8,774, Pennsylvania with 8,157, Michigan with 7,019, and Georgia with 6,822.
Public health officials continue to urge Alabamians to socially distance.
Do not shake hands or hug people not from your household, wear a mask or cloth face covering any time you are around other people, stay at least six feet from people not from your household, don’t sing, avoid bars and large crowds, wash hands frequently, use hand sanitizer and avoid touching your face.
The state of Alabama remains under a statewide “safer-at-home” order.
The statewide mask order is currently set to expire on Oct. 3, but Ivey is expected to extend the order into November.
Four different pharmaceutical companies — Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca — are currently in stage three human trials in testing a COVID-19 vaccine.
At least 987,743 people have died from COVID-19 worldwide, including 207,583 Americans.
