COVID-19 Omicron subvariants sparking gradual rise in cases in Alabama

Donna Thornton, The Gadsden Times
·3 min read
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Alabama's highest COVID-19 infection number came with the new year — back in December and January, according to Alabama Public Health District Medical Officer Dr. Wes Stubblefield.

Then the numbers dropped dramatically, the lowest coming around April. However, those numbers have been gradually increasing, Stubblefield said.

"We've gone from about 100 cases a day to 1,700 or 1,800 per day," he said, with positivity rates going from 2% to about 25%.

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Hospitalizations with the virus are up, Stubblefield said, from about 50 to 450 statewide.

The climb in case numbers may be the result of some "waning immunity" from vaccines and boosters, he said, and the evolution of the virus is a definite factor.

"And we may just be getting tired," Stubblefield said, and masking and social distancing less.

Breakthrough infections, when people who have been vaccinated get the virus, are occurring and have to be expected, he said, as the virus does what viruses do — it mutates to elude the protections of the vaccine.

But Stubblefield said vaccination and booster shots continue to protect people from being severely affected by COVID-19 — from needing hospitalization, or dying from the virus.

The cases rising at this point continue to be Omicron subvariants, he said.

Back in March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the most common lineages of Omicron were the BA.1, BA.1.1 and BA.2, and cautioned that the variants were spreading more easily than earlier variants of COVID-19, including the Delta variant.

According to the CDC, preliminary data indicates the Omicron variants cause less severe illness.

In Friday's data, the CDC reported BA.2.12.1 accounted for 42.2% of U.S. cases of COVID-19, while BA.5 caused 36.6% of cases; BA.4, 15.7%, and BA.2, 5.7%, made up the rest of the cases.

Stubblefield said Alabama is seeing increases in the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants.

By mid-June, U.S. News & World Report noted that more than 20% of new cases in the previous week were the BA.4 or BA.5 subvariants, up from 13% of cases the week prior, and 7% the week before that.

Stubblefield said the CDC recommends that people look at community level to gauge the local COVID-19 situation.

"Most counties in Alabama now are medium or high," he said.

Etowah County was one of nine counties in the state with a low level of community spread as of June 29, based on the last seven days' data; Tuscaloosa County was listed as medium and Montgomery County was high, according to the APH website.

Stubblefield said the guidance based on community levels of COVID are:

  • Low: Mask if you want to

  • Medium : People at risk should wear masks

  • High: Universal masking indoors is recommended

However, people do not have to wait for community levels where they are to increase before they take the kind of precautions recommended throughout the pandemic.

Contact Gadsden Times reporter Donna Thornton at 256-393-3284 or donna.thornton@gadsdentimes.com.

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: COVID-19 cases increase caused by Omicron subvariants rise in Alabama