Alabama healthcare providers are counting the days after Labor Day when it comes to the State’s COVID case numbers. The last official holiday of summer included college football games and heavy traffic as people drove to vacation spots or other destinations. UAB went into Labor Day predicting as many as six thousand new coronavirus cases. The CDC says infection can occur five to six days after exposure. That could mean Labor Day cases showing up the weekend. Doctor Suzanne Judd teaches Public Health at UAB. She says packed football stadiums are a concern…
“Our levels are high in Alabama. I’m not going to say they’re not,” said Judd. “They’re really, really high. They’re particular high in children and people between twenty and forty. And those are folks who might be at the games. So, it’s definitely something that worries me.”
Fans of the Alabama Crimson Tide headed to Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta for the college football season opener against the University of Miami Hurricanes. Over seventy thousand fans crowded the venue for the game. Doctor Judd says the normal kind of behavior that goes on during a college football event is the kind of thing that spreads COVID.
“People are yelling and screaming—that’s what you do at football game,” Judd observed. “You’re excited for your team. Well, that yelling and screaming allows particles to leave the body, those COVID particles is someone is infectious. And they wind up on other people.”
The Auburn Tigers also played Akron over the Labor Day weekend with over eighty thousand fans reportedly in the stands. Barely thirty six percent of Alabamians are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Healthcare providers say most of the patients undergoing hospital treatment for the virus haven’t had their shots.
