By MARY SELL, Alabama Daily News
The Alabama Department of Public Health reported a total of 36,682 confirmed COVID-19 cases on Monday. After a lag in reporting over the weekend, that number is an increase of nearly 4,000 cases since late last week.
Confirmed deaths topped 900 at 905 on Monday. About 78% of deaths have been people age 65 or older. At least 18,866 – or more than half – of Alabama COVID-19 are presumed to have recovered from the disease, according to state statistics.
Gov. Kay Ivey and other state officials will have an update on the situation in Alabama at 10 a.m. today.
About 392,800 Alabamians have been tested, according to ADPH. The percentage of positive tests has increased in recent weeks, hitting 10.9% last week.
State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris last week told Alabama Daily News that his concerns about cases in the state remain what they’ve been for months.
“We have a state that long before COVID-19 was not a very healthy state on balance,” Harris said. “We have a lot of chronic disease burden in our state. People who have diabetes and heart disease and chronic kidney disease and obesity and all those are risk factors for bad outcomes with this disease, so we have a very susceptible population.
“And on top of that, we have a hospital system that has been facing dire financial straits for a long time. And we’re going to impose this sudden surge of patients on them, you know without a moment’s notice. Sometimes in different parts of the state where this, where these outbreaks occur. …That’s just a recipe for disaster.”