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By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Managing Editor

A day after Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced an amended safer-at-home order that allowed schools and entertainment venues to open, as well as athletic activities to resume, the Alabama Department of Public Health made available COVID-19 recovery numbers for the first time since the virus started in the state on March 13.

With 13,414 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus since March 13, there have been 7,951 “presumed recoveries” according to the ADPH. While it’s not an exact number, that would suggest that would suggest that 59.3 percent of those who have had the virus have already recovered.

With recent positive spikes in different areas across the state, including an average of 350 new cases per day this week, many still have the virus, while 529 have died from COVID-19 since its onset.

Since Monday morning, there have been 1,372 new cases confirmed across the state, but a big reason for that is because of the increase in testing.

In the last four days, 19,380 new tests have been received by the ADPH, meaning 7.1 percent of those tested have received positive results.

Over the last two weeks, there have been 70,693 new tests, making up 41 percent of all tests in the last two-and-a-half months. In that same span, 4,336 have tested positive, meaning an increase in positive tests, but that makes up 32.3 percent of all positive cases, while only 6.1 percent of those tested in the last two weeks have had a positive case.

The county’s numbers are even better.

While places like Mobile and Montgomery have seen spikes in the last month, Shelby County has trended in a positive direction.

Over the last four days, the county has seen an increase of just 17 cases from 402 on Monday morning to 419 on Friday morning.

That comes despite more testing. In that same time frame, 1,173 new tests have been received by the ADPH, meaning 1.4 percent of those tested have tested positive.

Since the start of the virus in Alabama, Shelby County has seen 3.5 percent of the population tested with 7,705 tests now administered, while 5.4 percent of those tested have tested positive and 0.19 percent of the county’s population has tested positive.

Statewide, 7.7 percent of those tested have tested positive, while 0.27 percent of the state’s population has tested positive with 3.5 percent of the population tested.

So far, 1,815 healthcare workers have tested positive, while 1,292 long-term care residents and 831 long-term care employees have tested positive. That makes up 3,938 of the positive cases or 29.4 percent.

In addition to that, the majority of cases have been in those between the ages of 25 and 64. While 75.74 percent of cases have been in those between the ages of 0 and 64 (63.95 between 25 and 24), the majority of deaths have occurred in those 65 or older.

Right now, 81.4 percent of COVID-19 deaths have occurred in those 65 or older with just 18.6 occurring in those between the ages of 25 and 49. That means 430 of the deaths have occurred in those older than 65 and less than 100 in those 64 or younger.

There have also been no known deaths of anyone younger than the 25-49 age range, which makes up just 2.8 percent of all deaths, which is just 14 of the 529 so far.

Since the virus started there has also been 1,549 hospitalizations with 528 in the intensive care unit and 312 on ventilators. That marks 150 new hospitalizations in the last four days, while there have been 24 new patients in the ICU and 16 more on ventilators.

The hardest hit counties so far include Mobile, Jefferson and Montgomery, who all have more than 1,000 confirmed cases. Mobile sits at 1,874, Jefferson at 1,469 and Montgomery 1,052.

For a while, Shelby County had the second most cases, but with the surge in other counties and Shelby’s decrease in confirmed cases each day, Marshall (643), Lee (467) and Tuscaloosa (454) all have more now, meaning Shelby now has the seventh most cases.