Hospitalizations associated with COVID-19 in northern Alabama have seen a sharp increase over the past week, reversing a week-long trend.
Huntsville Hospital’s healthcare system, which includes facilities across northern Alabama, has seen inpatients increase 58 percent for those tested positive for the virus since April 8. On Friday, Huntsville Hospital reported 57 inpatients throughout the system, up from 35 on April 8. .
The increase is not the alarm, but it is the first since early January when it began to drop from a peak of more than 500 in the system.
“I really think it has to do with the spring break and Easter gatherings,” said Dr. Ali Hassoun, a specialist in infectious diseases at Huntsville Hospital, said Friday. ‘I think part of it also has to do with the fact that people are becoming more relaxed, more relaxed about the guidelines and masking. This will only make it easier for the transmission and infection rate. ”
The mandate over the entire mask, which was implemented in July 2020, ended on 9 April. But patients now in need of hospitalization would have been contracted before the mask mandate ended.
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Across the country, however, hospitalizations have increased less dramatically than in northern Alabama. According to the Alabama Department of Public Health, there were 301 people in the hospital on April 9 due to COVID – the least hospitalizations since the earlier weeks of the pandemic more than a year ago – and it was 332 people on Thursday, an increase of 10 percent.
In northern Alabama, the hospitalizations are primarily in Madison County. Of the 57 inpatients, 28 are in Huntsville Hospital or Huntsville Hospital for Women and Children. Another nine cases are in Madison Hospital. Elsewhere in the system, Helen Keller Hospital in Sheffield has eight cases and no other facility has more than five.
Hassoun downplayed the impact of variants of the COVID-19 virus as a significant impact on the increase in inpatients. He also said that there were ‘very rare cases’ of asymptomatic people who tested positive for the virus in hospital after receiving the vaccine.
“I think it’s partly related to that, because some of these variants are very transferable,” he said. “But I do not think that is the main reason. I really think we still have continuous shipping, and the more gatherings there are, the greater the chance of infection. ”
Hassoun pointed to the increase in inpatient care as a warning to people to continue with COVID protocols such as masking and social distance, as well as the need to get the vaccine.
While the widespread availability of the vaccine has cooled the concern seen earlier when hospital numbers began to tap upwards, Hassoun urged everyone to get the shots. The longer the virus and its variants circulate, the doctor warned, the greater the possibility that more danger variants will emerge.
And until the herd immunity is reached, more increases in cases and hospitalizations should be expected, Hassoun said.
“We’re watching it closely,” Hassoun said of the hospital numbers. “We hope it does not creep further in the next two weeks. Hopefully it will plateau and start to decline. Therefore, we encourage you to vaccinate please. It really makes a difference. ‘