New Coronavirus Cases In Jefferson County: Numbers Falling

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Not long ago, seeing more than 800 new COVID-19 cases in Jefferson County was a daily occurrence. However, just five weeks after the county was averaging more than 700 new cases per day, Jefferson County has now seen its 7-day average dip below 100.

Over the last week, the state's largest county averaged just fewer than 95 new cases per day. This is the lowest week-long average in the county since the first week of October.

The county averaged nearly 750 new cases of the virus per day in the last week of 2020. As recently as Jan. 11, the county averaged 700 new cases per day.

Jefferson is not the only county that has seen a massive decrease in new COVID-19 cases, the state's five largest counties have seen decreases of up to 80 percent since the end of January.

The state was averaging 845 new virus cases per day as of Sunday, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health. Put into perspective, Alabama averaged 2,550 cases per day during the last week of January.

Hospitalizations in the state have fallen as well, as the ADPH reported 951 patients hospitalized in Alabama with COVID-19, compared to more than 3,000 just five weeks ago.

State health director Dr. Scott Harris said the recent drop in new cases and hospitalizations shows that what the state is doing is working, bit it does not mean the state should get complacent.

"The message is that we’re not out of the woods, but we see how to get out of the woods,” Harris said in his news conference Friday. "And please don’t stop doing the things that you’re doing. This is not the time to ease up on wearing your mask, or it’s not the time to go be in large groups of people and think that everything is going to be just fine. We see a path forward. I mean, we know how we’re going to get there now. And it seems to be working."

Vaccinations likely have played a large part in the decrease in cases statewide, as the state has administered 717,477 doses of the vaccine, with 186,578 people having completed the vaccination process.