COVID-19 deaths in Alabama reach 21,000

At least 21,001 Alabamians have now lost their lives as a result of COVID-19, according to the latest data from the Alabama Department of Public Health released on Wednesday.

The grim milestone comes almost exactly three years after the first confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state of Alabama. Since, approximately 1,642,062 total cases of COVID-19 have been recorded, according to ADPH.

So far this year, 117 Alabamians have died as a result of COVID-19, according to ADPH. 

The deadliest year of the pandemic for the state came in 2021 when 9,565 deaths as a result of COVID-19 were recorded. That number surpassed the 2020 death total of 7,190. 

At one point in late September of 2021, the state of Alabama had the highest COVID-19 death rate in the U.S. 

By the end of 2022, the number of fatalities due to COVID-19 far exceeded the sum total of Alabamian dead in all the wars of the 20th century, with 4,129 dying as a result of the disease in 2022. 

In August of that year, the state reached 20,000 total deaths.

An estimated 1 in 229 residents died due to COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, according to an analysis by New York Times. 

As a result of the number of deaths during the pandemic, Alabama has the 5th highest death rate in the country as of 2022, with the neighboring state of Mississippi, which ranks 2nd, the only state nearby with a higher death rate, according to an analysis by the Public Affairs Council of Alabama.

The state’s current COVID-19 positivity rate, which is the number of virus tests reported as positive to state health officials, is 7.1 percent, according to ADPH, with 307 individuals reported hospitalized in area hospitals due to COVID-19 as of March. 1.