More Than 65K COVID Vaccines Wasted in Alabama as Delta Variant Surges newsweek.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from newsweek.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Virus hospitalizations in Alabama approach 1,600 amid surge
By KIM CHANDLER August 2, 2021 GMT
MONTGOME (AP) The number of coronavirus patients in Alabama hospitals rose to its highest levels in six months Monday as heath officials urged schools to require masks and other measures during a “critical juncture” in the pandemic.
Dr. Don Williamson, the former state health officer who now heads the Alabama Hospital Association, said the 1,583 hospitalized people includes 38 children. The state last saw numbers that high in early February. A month ago, there were a little over 200 people hospitalized.
The 1,583 patients in state hospitals is a little more than half of the number in January when there were 3,000 hospitalized. But Williamson said he is concerned the state is rapidly approaching the previous high-water mark.
Watch live: Alabama Health Officer Scott Harris holds COVID-19 press conference montgomeryadvertiser.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from montgomeryadvertiser.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
From USA TODAY Network and wire reports
Alabama
Montgomery: Vaccines for COVID-19 are now widely available, but some people remain hesitant to take the shots, State Health Officer Scott Harris said Friday. After months of struggling with getting an adequate supply into the state, Harris said health officials are now trying to battle some people’s reluctance to sign up for doses. While people can be reluctant to take the vaccine for a variety of reasons, one is the false belief that the vaccine is more dangerous than the coronavirus, he said. “If you can identify one single issue that is a problem, it’s that there are people who are just convinced that the vaccine is somehow more dangerous than the disease,” Harris told reporters. “That’s a false belief we have to try to combat as often as we can. It’s simply not true.” Nearly one-third of Alabama’s population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. However, that figure ranks the state third from last
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