COVID is spreading again statewide. The Alabama Department of Public Health has reinstated its daily COVID updates to remind the public the pandemic isn’t over.
The average positive test rate has gone from over 11% to over 20% in the past week. A recent UAB study found that 70% of virus samples from across the state were the more transmissible and severe delta variant.
Dr. Karen Landers is the district medical officer for the Alabama Department of Public Health. She said previous infection won’t make you immune to the delta variant.
"Delta is here, as is alpha and some of the other variants along with the wild type SARS COVID-2. But the vaccine is still effective against the variants,” she said.
Alabama currently has the lowest vaccination rate in the country. About two thirds of the state remains unvaccinated. Landers worries that Alabama’s unvaccinated population could create even more dangerous strains.
“Our opportunity to not allow the variants to have further ability to mutate and to run the risk of a variant that will not be covered by the vaccine is to go ahead and be vaccinated,” she said.
For daily COVID updates and vaccine information, visit alabamapublichealth.gov.