DECATUR, Ala. — The Alabama Department of Public Health has labeled Morgan County as high-risk for community COVID-19 transmission levels.
Decatur Mayor Tab Bowling said the area has seen an increase of approximately 200 cases in just a one-week period. In contrast, Bowling said they are also seeing a slight increase in the number of vaccinated people in the area.
Health officials say vaccination rates are not rising quickly enough to offset the current spread of COVID-19. Decatur Morgan Hospital Chief Nursing Officer Anita Walden said there are 13 patients being treated for COVID-19 at the hospital as of August 2.
"Of those in the hospital there were only two that had a vaccination prior to," said Walden. "So that's a little concerning."
Walden went on to urge the community to get vaccinated if they have not already done so, saying it isn't just the elderly being hospitalized with the virus.
"And we've actually have had those in their twenties and thirties," said Welden. "The same message that we have been saying for months now, please, please get your vaccination."
Walden says the Decatur Morgan Hospital offers free, mobile vaccine clinics.
ADPH Northern District Assistant Administrator Michael Glen says the state as a whole is seeing a lot of community transmission.
"The statewide positivity rate is a little over twenty percent which is a little higher than Morgan county," said Glen.