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By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Managing Editor 

Over the last three weeks, Shelby County has seen consistent decreases in confirmed cases of COVID-19 with less than 40 cases per week, but in the last 24 hours alone, the county has had 33 new cases of the novel coronavirus.

Two weeks ago, the weekly total was at 39, then between Monday, May 11, and Monday, May 18, the county saw that number decrease to 35. During the most recent seven-day span, Monday, May 18, through Monday, May 25, the county’s number increased from 402 to 434, which continued to show a decrease in cases down to 32 during that span.

But the county had more than that in just the last 24 hours alone. Since Friday, May 22, the number of confirmed cases has risen by 48 from 419 to 467, meaning all but 17 of the confirmed cases since Monday, May 18, were between Friday, May 22, and Tuesday, May 26.

In that time span, there have been 755 tests administered by the Alabama Department of Public Health, meaning 6.3 percent tested have returned positive results.

In the last week, however, the numbers still look good for the county with 65 positive tests out of 1,928 tests administered for a positive percentage rate of 3.4 percent.

With 8,460 tests now administered across the county and 467 confirmed cases, 5.5 percent of those tested are getting positive results, which is also a decrease of close to two percent from the month of April.

The county also still sits at 19 deaths—a number that hasn’t increased in more than a week.

So far, 3.9 percent of Shelby County’s population has been tested, while 0.2 percent of the county’s population has gotten a positive test back.

The last 24 hours was part of a massive jump across the state, as Alabama saw its largest increase in a single day by a large margin with 646 new cases.

So far across the state, there have been 15,650 confirmed cases of the virus with 193,759 tests administered. The last 14 days has accounted for 5,199 of those cases, or 33.2 percent, but there have also been 73,741 tests administered in that time, making up 39 percent of all tests administered in two-and-a-half months.

So far, 8 percent of those tested across the state have gotten back positive results, while that number has decreased to 7 percent in the last 14 days.

The state has seen 4 percent of its population tested since March 13, while 0.3 percent of the population has tested positive.

There are currently 7,951 presumed recoveries, but those numbers are being updated on a weekly basis and haven’t been updated since last week.

Statewide, there have been 580 deaths since the start of the virus, which is an increase of 92 since Monday, May 18.

Of those who have died, 80.9 percent have been 65 or older, while 15.9 percent have been between the ages of 50 and 64 and 3.3 percent between the ages of 25 and 49.

Those numbers come despite the majority of cases being in those between the ages of 25 and 49 with 40.18 percent of that age range making up the number of confirmed cases, while 23.74 percent are between the ages of 50 and 64 and 22.93 percent are 65 or older.

There have been 1,689 hospitalizations since the start of the virus with 553 of those in the intensive care unit and 328 on ventilators. In addition to that, 2,011 healthcare workers have had confirmed cases, while 1,469 long-term care residents and 912 long-term care employees have had confirmed cases.

The hardest hit counties so far include Mobile, Jefferson and Montgomery, who all have more than 1,000 confirmed cases. Mobile became the first to surpass 2,000 confirmed cases and now sits at 2,054, while Jefferson is at 1,645 and Montgomery 1,384.

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 (660), Tuscaloosa (607), Lee (522) and Franklin (486) all have more now, meaning Shelby now has the eighth most cases.

If you think you have been exposed or have symptoms of COVID-19, please isolate and call your doctor or nearest medical facility for guidance or call the Alabama Department of Public Health hotline at 1-888-264-2256.

For more information about COVID-19, visit Alabamapublichealth.gov/infectiousdiseases/2019-coronavirus.

To view an updated dashboard of confirmed cases and see testing sites, visit Alpublichealth.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/6d2771faa9da4a2786a509d82c8cf0f7

Continue to follow throughout this week for daily updates to see if the upward trend continues in relation to the number of tests administered.