DOTHAN, Ala. – Friday’s daily COVID report by the Alabama Department of Public Health included a backlog of almost 3,000 cases from September through February. But even when those old cases are filtered out, the state still had a big jump in the number of new cases.
The daily report shows the state has had 537,813 cases since the pandemic began. On Friday, 4,918 cases were added, but 2,964 of those were old cases just added to the system. That leaves 1,954 new cases of the virus — a level that is more than five times the 7-day moving average for the week ending Thursday.
Those numbers come on the heels of a report Thursday that also included backlogged cases. But even after accounting for the old data, the adjusted daily count came in at 838 cases, nearly triple the 7-day average calculated Wednesday.
Averages have been staying between 300 and 400 per day since the end of March. The 7-day average surged from 368.29 on Thursday to 602.57 on Friday. The longer-term 14-day average, which is not as susceptible to daily surges, nonetheless increased from 353.36 on Thursday to 463.71 on Friday.
Assistant State Health Officer Dr. Karen Landers told BirminghamWatch via email that the figures reported Friday were “not current cases,” and that she and other department staffers were working to see if there is a problem with the data.
The ADPH has struggled to deal with backlogged cases over the course of the pandemic, even though testing labs are required by law to report cases in a timely manner. But since many labs used for Alabama tests lie outside the state, the department is often helpless to enforce the mandate.
There were 23 COVID-related deaths reported Friday. The 7-day average is at 8.29 deaths per day, and the 14-day average moved up to 9.14 per day. Both figures are consistent with numbers over the past three weeks.
Jefferson County reported one death Friday. There were 2,026 new cases reported in the county, but it is unknown how many of those are old cases because the number of backlogged reports was not broken out by county.
COVID hospitalizations across Alabama remain fairly steady. There were 355 inpatients being treated for the virus as of Friday, down by 12 from the day before.
