Alabama’s COVID-19 positivity rate continues to rise steadily from the previous week up to 18 percent on Sunday, a 2.7 percentage point increase from the previous week, while the state’s hospitalizations due to COVID-19 slightly decreased, according to recent data from the Alabama Department of Public Health.
The seven-day average for the percent of COVID-19 tests that were positive was 15.3 percent on June 5, rising to 18 percent on June 12, pushing the COVID positivity rate closer to numbers seen at the beginning of the year during a major surge in cases.
Currently, the reported number of positive COVID-19 tests remains the best indicator for when cases across the state are on the rise due to the number of individuals using at-home tests and not reporting the results to ADPH.
Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 are decreasing slightly from the number reported last week, with 229 confirmed COVID-19 patients in Alabama hospitals as of Monday, according to data from ADPH.
The rise is still an increase from this time last week when ADPH reported 200 total COVID-19 patients in Alabama hospitals. The patient number increased by 33 patients the following day to 233, eventually peaking last Wednesday at 253 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, before the hospitalizations began to decrease as the week drew to a close.
The state’s vaccination rate continues to be well below the national average, with just over half of Alabama’s population now fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and ADPH.
Alabama has the second-lowest vaccination rate at 51.5 percent of the state’s residents fully vaccinated, beaten only by Wyoming — a state with a population smaller than Jefferson County — at 51.3 percent of the total population fully vaccinated.
