Hi, what are you looking for?
Rep. Sewell to join press conference marking 11th anniversary of Shelby County v. Holder
Secretary Allen accuses Biden of using undocumented immigrants to steal election
Sen. Katie Britt raises $250K for Ted Cruz in Birmingham
Democratic primary heads to runoff in Birmingham-area House seat
Justice Department in opposition of SB1 limiting voting assistance
Gov. Ivey announces $53.5 million grant for expanding broadband
Gov. Ivey appoints new Talladega County district judge
Gov. Ivey announces 20 appointments to various state positions
Gov. Ivey announces 31 appointments to political seats and boards
Governor commemorates 80th Anniversary of D-Day with video message
Democratic state politicians reflect on legislative session at Tuscaloosa town hall
Rep. Fidler awards VP of the BBB Educational Foundation in Mobile with a grant
Rep. Phillip Ensler responds to SCOTUS ruling on bump stocks
Lt. Gov. Ainsworth highlights full enactment of pro-military legislative package
SB301 to begin cracking down on distracted drivers
Job openings in Alabama unchanged in April, separations down
Developers secure lease, advancing commercial development at Southtown site
UAW president: Mercedes breaking promises to workers by blaming the union
Report: Alabama home sales increase for fourth consecutive month
Birmingham Mayor Woodfin agrees to federal “Good Jobs Principles”
AG Marshall criticizes president’s deferment of deporting Palestinians
Britt continues vocalizing need for social media age restrictions
Sen. Tuberville supports repealing sexual harassment, diversity programs in CHIPS Act
Rep. Sewell welcomes White House Congressional Black Entrepreneurship Roundtable
Rep. Sewell’s statement on the passing of Willie Mays
Prattville Library approves workaround for LGBT book ban
Board votes to extend Alabama A&M president’s contract to 2030
Program aims to reduce barriers for future Alabama correctional officers
Child well-being in Alabama improves, relative to other states
Alabama schools will receive over $16 million from the EPA to purchase clean buses
Reproductive rights organizations: “Human beings are dying” because of state policies
Rep. Sewell, UAB to highlight research, advances in pancreatic cancer care
Alabamians safely dispose of over 4,000 pounds of medications on Take Back Day
Alabama employers sound the alarm on policies targeting prescription drug benefits
William F. Green State Veterans Home earns 2024 AHCA/NCAL Bronze National Quality Award
For the past three years, the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) has provided access to COVID-19 data. The federal COVID-19 public health emergency expired on May 11, 2023, and with that expiration, much of the data is no longer available. Our dashboard has been modified to remove temporal data that has become outdated. Historical archived data, such as cases and deaths over time, will remain available for now.
Vaccine data is from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, except where specified otherwise, and may differ from data provided by the Alabama Department of Public Health.
Different trackers have different cut-off times and tracking methods, so daily case totals may be slightly different. There are three main tracking methods for Alabama’s case data. (1) Cases by date of infectiousness, (2) cases by date reported to ADPH, and (3) a raw tracking of the cumulative case count.
For most of the pandemic, through the summer of 2021, APR’s dashboard relied on the third method (3), meaning that our dashboard captured the cumulative case count (the total number of cases since March 2020) for each day as publicly posted on ADPH’s data portal. The previous day’s cumulative case count was then subtracted from the current day’s count to arrive at a daily increase. For example, the cumulative case count on Jan. 17, 2021, was 422,598. The count on Jan. 18, 2021, was 424,028. Therefore, the case increase on Jan. 18 was listed as 1,430. Other than some ad hoc accounting for backlogs, the data isn’t revised later.
The second method (2) is similar except that it relies on internal counts provided by the Alabama Department of Public Health. The “date reported” represents when the case was reported to ADPH by a health care provider. If ADPH receives 5,000 case reports on a day, that day’s case increase will be listed as 5,000, regardless of when the case actually occurred. Counts are typically very close to the first method (1), except for some fluctuation caused by delays. ADPH doesn’t adjust this data when backlogs are reported, so some dates have data anomalies caused by that.
The first method (1) tracks cases by the date the case occurred — in other words, when the case became infectious or ill. This count differs from the “date reported” because there are sometimes delays or backlogs between when a case occurs and when a provider reports that case to ADPH. There have been instances throughout the pandemic when labs and other providers have neglected to report cases immediately. For instance, a single lab could report 5,000 cases on Dec. 15. Once inspected, it’s determined those cases occurred in October and November. ADPH will backdate each case to the date it occurred. This method accounts for backlogs better than that second (2) and third (3). However, this method has lag. Data for the last two weeks — and occasionally longer — are often incomplete because of the time it takes providers to report cases to ADPH and for ADPH to determine and record the date of occurence. That’s why on the daily case count chart of cases by date of infectiousness, it frequently looks as if the daily case counts for the last few days have taken a sudden dive. That is usually because the data is incomplete. As time goes on, ADPH receives more reports and updates daily numbers, and the numbers are typically revised upward.
The same three methods are used for deaths as well, i.e. deaths by actual date of death, deaths by date of report, and a raw tracking of the cumulative death count.
ADPH uses the first method (1) for monitoring COVID-19 cases and trends as it is a more accurate representation of disease transmission levels in the community than the second method (2). Beginning in July and August of 2021, APR removed method three (3) from our dashboard. Now, we rely on the data provided by ADPH and provide both method one (1) and method two (2) tracking in several categories. However, we still perform other calculations on our own based on ADPH’s data.
We update our data shortly after the Alabama Department of Public Health releases new COVID-19 data. Beginning in July 2022, ADPH moved to only updating data once per week, which means that APR’s data dashboard will only update once per week. Hospitalization data and vaccination data provided by the CDC may update more frequently, but the CDC is also currently only updating publicly available data once per week.
Email [email protected] if you have a question or concern about the dashboard. We will do our best to respond, though we may not be able to respond to everyone.