Alabama Department of Public Health says coronavirus cases are trending in a bad direction

Alabama Department of Public Health says coronavirus cases are trending in a bad direction

The alabama department of public health says the state's coronavirus cases are going in the wrong direction.

Right now five counties are at very high-risk for coronavirus exposure in north alabama.

Those are colbert, lauderdale, limestone, madison, and marshall counties.

In the last 24 hours -- alabama added 1,154 new cases.

There are now more than 184- thousand confirmed cases since march - and another close to 35-thousand probable cases.

Alabama also surpassed the 3-thousand mark for deaths in the state related to the virus.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm dan shaffer.

And i'm najahe sherman.

Waay31's breken terry spoke with public health officials... she found out why north alabama is in the red, breken?

Dr. karen landers told me there are several reasons why we're seeing many north alabama counties become red zones.

She said it's cold so people are indoors more and more people are gathering without taking precatuions.

Landers- persons gathering together for fall festivals or halloween parties in addition some attendance to sporting events and we know persons in church gatherings have become infected with covid-19.

Landers said more people in the 5 to 17 age group statewide are testing positive too.

Landers- children or teachers might be contracting covid in the community and then of course coming back into the school setting so we have a lot of concerns about the numbers increasing.

Landers said the spread is coming from person-to-person transmission.

Having events outside, wearing masks, and social distancing are the only tools to fight the virus right now.

Landers- now is really the time for us to step back, regroup and say okay we do need to adhere to these measures that were going on earlier in the year.

Landers told me w'ere to the point that our health care facilities are being pushed to their limits.

She said right now the state has 15% occupancy avalible in icu beds and they'd like to keep it around that number.

Anyting less than that and that's when the strain increases on hospitals.

In the shoals bt waay31.