The level of community transmission of COVID-19 remains high throughout Alabama.
That’s the latest from the State Department of Public Health coronavirus dashboard. The caseload and hospitalization rate remains high in Mobile, Baldwin, Jefferson, and Madison Counties, among others.
One area that been hit hard by the pandemic is the school system in Mobile. Eric Beck is with the Alabama Education Association, and he said the system is still recovering.
“It’s an employee shortage because we have a shortages of clerks and cafeteria workers and bus drivers," he said, "so the folks who work behind the scenes to make all this stuff that the classroom instructors do possible.´
Beck said students are also getting used to being in class after months of virtual learning due to COVID-19.
“How do you deal with a kid who has never been in a classroom environment until the second or third grade?" he said. "They are passing academically but they have never had to sit still. They have never had to wait to go to the bathroom. They have never had to deal with someone pulling their hair.”