Alabama sees second day below 1,000 new COVID-19 cases

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - For the second day in a row, the Alabama Department of Public Health reported a sub-1,000 case day of COVID-19 positive test results. The state confirmed 886 cases Wednesday, down from Tuesday’s 963, which brought the first triple-digit day of increases in a month.

Medical experts are still cautiously optimistic but say the falling case numbers could be because of Alabama’s recent mask mandate or due to a backlog that has “overwhelmed” the ability to quickly return test results. It could also be a combination of both.

Nationally, as well as in Alabama, the number of tests being conducted is on a downward trend despite the number of deaths increasing.

With Wednesday’s results, the state has now reported 91,776 total cases of the disease since the pandemic’s spread to Alabama in March. Another 2,878 cases are probable. Of those confirmed cases, ADPH presumes 37,923, or about 41 percent, have since recovered. That estimation is updated once weekly.

The state reported 28 deaths Wednesday, bringing the death toll to 1,639 with 56 more probable.

The seven-day average for new cases has dropped again, this time from 1,511 to 1,457. Over the past 14 days, ADPH data indicates 161,036 people have been tested. Of those, 20,155 had the disease for a positive test rate of 12.5 percent.

As for daily county case reports, Montgomery confirmed 45 new cases and one death Wednesday and has a seven-day average remains at 66 cases per day. Mobile reported 99 new cases and seven deaths, and Jefferson added 147 cases and two deaths for the day.

Statewide hospital inpatient rates have been unavailable since Monday when they dropped to 1,517 from a record peak of 1,642 on July 30. ADPH reports there have been 11,100 total hospitalizations due to the virus since the pandemic started.

In Montgomery, there were 144 patients being treated in the area’s four primary hospitals according to the latest information. That includes 96 at Baptist Health’s three facilities and 48 at Jackson Hospital, as of Wednesday.

ADPH has developed a dashboard on the state’s COVID-19 data. More features can be accessed by clicking here.

The ADPH also provides a color-code map showing the risk indicator for each of the state’s 67 counties. You can also view more details on each county by clicking here.

The Alabama Department of Corrections, which oversees more than 26,000 inmates, continues to report relatively few cases of the disease among prisoners and staff. That data is available here.

You can also review the latest data on not just Alabama, but every county in the nation by using this map. Hover over any county to see the numbers. The map is shaded to show the concentration of confirmed COVID-19 cases relative to the population in that county. The data is pulled from Johns Hopkins University.