HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Governor Kay Ivey's new amended order will reopen the majority of businesses throughout Alabama starting Monday, but city leaders in Huntsville and Madison are reminding people that the new order doesn't take affect for another two days.
"These new things don't go into affect until Monday. This weekend is the same as it has been and we need to respect that and manage that and as we roll into Monday continue to go into our next new norm but in a way that makes good sense," said Madison Mayor Paul Finley.
Finley said any offenders of the current order in place will be addressed by authorities. He said even though they expect the majority of folks to do the right thing, the ones that do not follow the current order in place will be reminded of the rules immediately.
There have been over 1,000 new cases of coronavirus in Alabama since Monday, which is a 13 percent increase across the state. In Madison County that number was much lower at just 7 new cases since Monday.
Right now there are over 3,000 COVID patients in Alabama that are no longer experiencing symptoms at this time. Dr. Karen Landers with the Alabama Department of Public Health said the symptom profile has been expanded recently, causing more testing to happen. Patients in the U.S. that are experiencing a loss of taste or smell, sore throat or vomiting, along with shortness of breath and/or fever are being prompted to get tested for the virus.
"If they had at least two of those additional criteria, we have proceeded with COVID-19 testing. So as a result of that and as mentioned in the numbers, we are doing more testing and we expect to see more cases of COVID-19 as part of this testing," she added.
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