COVID-19 hospitalizations have surged over 20% in less than two weeks in Alabama.
Statistics from the Alabama Department of Public Health showed 362 people were hospitalized Monday for the illness caused by COVID-19, up from 301 patients 10 days earlier. That’s still a small portion of the over 3,000 patients who filled the state’s intensive care wards to almost full capacity in mid-January.
Officials say that the increase in cases is concerning but not an immediate threat to the state’s healthcare system, still only being a fraction of people being treated earlier in the year.
As more and more people are vaccinated, and infections shift to younger people, severe illness isn’t expected.