New COVID Cases In Alabama Top 2,700 In One Day

MONTGOMERY, AL — Schools in Alabama are opening in the next couple of weeks, which also means more gatherings, more exposure to others, and unfortunately more COVID-19 cases, health officials say.

Alabama reported 2,730 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, bringing the percentage of cases in Alabama higher than any state in the country.

Since the pandemic began in March of 2020, more than 11,000 people in Alabama have died from COVID-19, and more than 577,000 people have tested positive for the virus.

Alabama's 7-day average for new cases per day sits at 2,098 cases per day. Alabama's 7-day average July 1 was at 191 new cases per day. The state’s 7-day average for cases peaked at 4,281 on Jan. 10. UAB doctors say a spike in COVID-19 deaths in Alabama is not far away.

UAB doctors project that more than 8,000 people in the state could be hospitalized with the virus by the end of August, higher than the end of last summer, when the coronavirus was at its second peak.

The counties in Alabama reporting the highest daily average over the last 7 days:

• Mobile County: 354 cases per day
• Jefferson County: 220 cases per day
• Baldwin County: 188 cases per day
• Madison County: 87 cases per day
• Shelby County: 77 cases per day

As of Thursday, 1.6 million people in Alabama had been fully vaccinated, and 34.2 percent of eligible Alabama residents had been vaccinated, placing Alabama at the bottom of the country's list for percentage of population vaccinated.

State health director Dr. Scott Harris said in a news conference Tuesday that the rate at which cases are now developing is "unprecedented."

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