SHEFFIELD-We have had numerous inquiries posed to our healthcare leaders regarding their perspective in reopening activities in northwest Alabama. While there is reason to be optimistic, there is also reason to be extremely careful, especially now.
Our area’s journey with COVID-19 began on Friday, March 19th with the first confirmed positive case in northwest Alabama. The number of COVID-19 cases in northwest Alabama grew from one case to near 100 cases on April 30th. Our trajectory at the time showed slow growth indicative of significant control of spread and tracked favorably compared to the rest of the state.
Then, May happened. Our number of confirmed cases increased from 124 to 441 in the first 13 days of May, as indicated below.
Although the Huntsville area is 174% more populous than northwest Alabama, yesterday, our total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Colbert, Franklin and Lauderdale Counties combined surpassed that of Madison, Limestone and Morgan counties combined.
Likewise, in the most recent 13 days, we experienced a threefold increase in the number of patients who were admitted to local hospitals with COVID-19, several in critical condition.
Despite the broad clusters of home addresses of many of the newly discovered cases, most of our COVID-19 positive patients work, buy groceries, and have family connections throughout Franklin, Colbert and Lauderdale Counties, as we all would expect.
While we all want normalcy as soon as possible, we are concerned about a return to normal daily activity while our corner of Alabama encounters more new COVID-19 activity than most Alabama communities this month. Based on this data, we urge everyone to use extreme caution in the coming days and weeks in order to prevent a severe outbreak in our local community.
Media Release/Hunter Nicholson/Helen Keller Hospital
