ADPH spokesman Ryan Easterling in a message to APR on Wednesday said the department was finalizing its school toolkit which will follow CDC guidance on masks in schools, which the CDC updated Tuesday.
CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told reporters Tuesday that the change in mask recommendations comes after new data on the delta variant shows that viral loads carried by the vaccinated are as high as those carried by the unvaccinated, meaning the vaccinated can transmit the virus.
“In recent days I have seen new scientific data from recent outbreak investigations showing that that delta variant behaves uniquely differently from past strains of the virus that cause COVID-19,” Walensky said, also noting, however, that the CDC believes vast majority of transmission is occurring in unvaccinated people and through unvaccinated people.
Alabama hospitals reported 1,181 COVID-related hospitalizations on Wednesday a drastic increase compared to the 187 patients in state hospitals just one month prior on June 28.
The seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases in the state was 1,447, the highest the state has seen since early February.
While it is recommended by the country s leading health experts, a spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Education said mask mandates will continue to be a local decision for now.
Multiple districts have announced masks will be required indoors, including the Birmingham, Bessemer, Huntsville and Montgomery public school systems.
“As we continue to monitor our local COVID-19 cases and the new variants of COVID, we want to ensure that all of our students and staff are protected as much as possible, Superintendent Ann Roy Moore said in a news release. We will continue to monitor all recommendations provided by the CDC to determine if and when we will need to remove
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June 12, 2021 GMT
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) Alabama continues to have the second lowest COVID-19 vaccination rate in the United States and will be far short of the White House goal of getting 70% of adults vaccinated by July 4.
Alabama ranks only above Mississippi, according to numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Alabama, about 36% of the total population of Alabama has received at least one dose of vaccine with most of the vaccinations going to adults.
President Joe Biden has set a goal of having 70% of the adult U.S. population at least partially vaccinated by July 4, a percentage that Alabama will likely be far short of that percentage.