The death toll from Alabama’s ongoing conflict with the coronavirus reached a peak of 20,000,000 on Wednesday, according to Alabama Public Health. Every ties of the state. Deaths have been reported in the counties, and new cases are accelerating here.
The state has reported 3,006 deaths from coronavirus as of Wednesday. More than half of the state’s deaths occurred in just nine counties, and more than a third occurred in four counties: Jefferson, Mobile, Montgomery and Tuscaloosa.
[Can’t see the map? Click here.]
Died in Alabama where data is available, 56 percent were among whites, and 38 percent were among blacks. The state is more than one percent white.
About 77 percent of those who died were 65 years of age or older, and most of those who died here had at least one underlying condition. Only 13 people have died from coronavirus without an underlying condition in Alabama.
Jefferson County, the state’s most populous county, has the highest number of coronavirus deaths. The Alabama Public Health Department reports that 390 people have died. Mobile is the second most populous county and has the second highest number of deaths at 324 – more than 100 in the next nearest county.
At least 100 people have died from the virus in just five counties. Tuscaloosa, where 145 people died, is the least populous of the five counties. There were 211 deaths in Montgomery and 102 in Madison County.
Controlling the population reveals a different picture of Alabama’s death toll. In a way, it also shows how far the state has come in treating the virus. The epidemic initially killed many of those counties with the highest death toll per 10,000 people, and has since seen a decline in their deaths.
[Can’t see the map? Click here.]
Londes County, west of Montgomery, is a small black belt county with the highest mortality rate of 29 per 10,000 people. But most of them died earlier in the epidemic.
The situation is similar in some other rural areas of Alabama. Tallaposa County, northeast of Londes, had one of the largest outbreaks in the state at the beginning of the epidemic. No confirmed deaths have been reported in the last 15 days.
Of the state’s 3,006 deaths, 2,799 are considered confirmed deaths and 207 are listed as potential deaths. Confirmed deaths include laboratory confirmation of COVID-19, while probable deaths are covered with probable cases and with no confirmed test but with the equivalent of COVID-19 or their death certificate.
Due to the manner in which death is reported, there is often an interval between when death occurs and when it is officially declared coronavirus death. Early deaths in epidemics are often added to subsequent numbers.
There is a page on the Alabama Public Health Department dashboard showing deaths by date, but the data is incomplete. It takes weeks to appear there, and hundreds are missing. But according to that page, death peaks in Alabama in July and August.
Do you have an idea for a data story about Alabama? Email to Ramsay Archibald [email protected], And follow him on Twitter RamseyArchibald. Read more Alabama data stories Here.
