MORGAN COUNTY, Alabama — COVID-19 cases are increasing at a steady pace in Morgan County.
During a media briefing on Monday, leaders in Morgan County noted the positivity rate is over 57%. That adds up to about three out of five people who are tested for COVID-19 receive a positive test result.
ADPH Assistant Administrator for the Northern District, Michael Glenn, said the holiday season is contributing to the surge in cases.
"We don't fully believe that the full ramifications from Christmas and New Years we've seen yet, so January is going to be a very probably difficult time for the hospital systems and for public health as well," said Glenn.
Hospitalizations are down, but that's not necessarily good news. Hospital officials contribute that decrease to the number of patients dying from the virus.
Decatur Morgan Hospital President Kelli Powers said, "We are down to 79 positives. We do have 14 presumptive patients which puts us still at 93, but we had a high last week of 96, so being down to 79 is a little less stress on our staff."
Hospitals are still facing huge staffing shortages due to COVID-19. Fortunately, many area hospital employees will receive the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine this week.
"We're doing the booster clinics January the 6th. The people that got the first Pfizer vaccine from Athens will come back and get their second shot," said Powers. "Then we'll have another one on January 12th from Athens, and then we will continue weekly to vaccinate as many people as we possibly can."
The Alabama Department of Public Health expects to get another round of vaccines this week. They say they are still focused on vaccinating the people in phase 1a, which includes front line health care workers.
"We just want you to get a vaccine wherever you can get it at," said Glenn. "If you are a health care provider, what we would ask for you to do is that somebody from your facility reach out to your local county health department and we will give you the information to schedule your whole team."
Powers says they hope to get all health care workers vaccinated by the end of January.
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