BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) – The most recent wave of the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be waning in Alabama, with hospitalizations and new cases falling rapidly in the past month, but the state could face another round of illness without additional vaccinations and precautions, health experts said Wednesday.
While statewide hospitalizations are less than half of what they were in early September and fewer people are contracting the illness, the combination of another virus variant and a slowdown in vaccinations could worsen the state’s predicament yet again, said two officials from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
“I really am very careful to say that we’ve won when I don’t feel that way right now,” said Dr. Rachael Lee, an epidemiologist with UAB Medicine.
Russell Griffin, an associate professor of public health at UAB, said around 90% of COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated, and the average age of people hospitalized with the illness is about 10 years younger than those treated early this year.
“Younger people are dying and that is what is scary to us,” he told a news briefing.