HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — In Madison County, COVID-19 cases are remaining flat; however, hospitalizations are up slightly. Health leaders say the colder months could make it worse.
While COVID-19 cases in Madison County have levelled out, that is not necessarily good news. On average, over 1,000 people in Alabama currently test positive for the virus each week, and hospitals are getting ready for an increase in inpatients.
Huntsville Hospital CEO David Spillers said, "A thousand is the number we hate to see it go above, because those thousand patients generate inpatients at a rate that starts to fill up the hospitals. That's been trending up. It was about 990 last time I reported, so it is slowly trending up."
Spillers says it is typical to get more inpatients during the winter months. Now, more people being hospitalized with COVID-19 is leading to full hospitals.
Fortunately, fewer patients are needing intensive care and ventilators right now, but still, about 10% of people hospitalized with the coronavirus die.
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"If you look at our system, we've had over 2,000 inpatients over the course of COVID and about 200 of them have passed away, so it is a pretty consistent rate. It is still a very dangerous virus for a lot of people."
Right now, local health officials are keeping an eye on Morgan County.
"Decatur Morgan this morning has matched their all time high in inpatients. They have 34 inpatients. The last time they saw a number that high was post Fourth of July," said Spillers.
To combat this, the Huntsville Hospital system is opening a COVID unit at the Parkway Hospital. Spillers says they will open with a small number of beds and eventually increase the number of beds as they get more staffing.
They hope to have the COVID unit up and running by November. They say the nationwide nursing shortage and many hospital staff being out due to the virus is making opening more difficult.
WATCH: Morgan County COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations increasing