Contagious Omicron subvariants behind the latest COVID-19 surge in Alabama – WHNT News 19

HUNTSVILLE, Ala (WHNT) Alabama health officials say COVID-19 is starting to surge once again in the state.

For example, Huntsville Hospital reported this week that its COVID-19 patient volume is at 95 patients systemwide and since July 4, the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) has been reporting a 27% increase in COVID positivity rate.

ADPH warns that as the positive COVID numbers continue to rise due to subvariants to contend with.

According to infectious disease experts, Madison County has only 35% of the countys population fully vaccinated. The problem is that it doesnt change the current state of the pandemic in north Alabama.

That means Alabamais still not out of the wood just yet.

The state has seen a 67% increase in its COVIDpositivity rate over the past 30 days and thats not counting the unreported cases over the holiday weekend.

Thats because new subvariants have appeared and as Dr. Wes Stubblefield of theADPHnotes, the variants have had a unique ability to evade immunity protections.

Most of us out there have either had the vaccine or had the infection or have had both but that doesnt mean you cant get it again, Stubblefield told News 19. The immunity runs and it doesnt matter where it comes from. Vaccination produces more consistent immunity and obviously, antibodies produce immunity but neither one lasts long-term.

Stubblefield added that they were seeing about 100 cases a day during the springmonths. Now there are reports of just under 2,000 cases per day.

30 states reported more cases in the week of June 28 to July 5 than in the week before, according to an analysis by John Hopkins University.

COVID is still real and its still worse than the flu on average, Stubblefield noted. Most healthy people that fall into those high-risk conditions have a serious risk of going into the hospital and being very sick.Thats why we want people to be vaccinated and why we want them to know that there are therapies for people who get COVID and how to get to those therapies.

Alabama continues to rank near the bottom of the country in total COVID vaccinations.

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Contagious Omicron subvariants behind the latest COVID-19 surge in Alabama - WHNT News 19