Alabama’s COVID positivity rate now highest in nation

University of Alabama COVID vaccine

Dr. Jeffrey Lull, second-year resident at The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa Family Medicine, receives the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at the University of Alabama's University Medical Center.The University of Alabama

Alabama now has the highest COVID positivity rate in the United States.

Data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services shows Alabama’s positivity rate on PCR tests - the most accurate type of COVID test available - was 18.5% on July 26, the most recent date for which data was available.

Alabama’s rate of tests performed that come back positive was the highest in the nation at that time.

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In fact, Alabama’s positivity rate is more than a full percentage point higher than the next closest state - Florida, at 17.2%.

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Several Southern states have among the highest positivity rates in the nation.

Seven of the top 10 states for positivity rate are in the South.

They are Alabama (No. 1), Florida (No. 2), Mississippi (No. 4), Oklahoma (No. 5), Louisiana (No. 6), Texas (No. 7) and Tennessee (No. 10).

The positivity rate on PCR tests has been rising steadily in Alabama since the start of July, as case counts and virus hospitalizations have surged here, fueled by the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus.

As recently as June 21, the state’s positivity rate for PCR tests was 4.2% - the lowest it’s ever been.

The rate was below 5% for much of June - the first time since the start of the pandemic it had fallen below that key threshold.

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Now, the rate has more than quadrupled in just over a month.

The state’s 7-day average for new cases rose past 1,900 on Wednesday, higher than it ever got in last July’s surge.

Meanwhile, hospitalizations rose to nearly 1,200 on Wednesday, and Dr. Don Williamson, head of the Alabama Hospital Association, said 26 of those patients were pediatric.

Do you have an idea for a data story about Alabama? Email Ramsey Archibald at rarchibald@al.com, and follow him on Twitter @RamseyArchibald. Read more Alabama data stories here.

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