Alabama Marks Three Years Since First COVID Case

It was Friday the 13th of March, 2020, that state health officials announced Alabama’s first COVID case, which was in Montgomery County.

In the three years since, we have seen long lines for COVID shots, debates about how the state handled the pandemic and on a national level, questions about how the virus started.

As of Wednesday, March 8, 2023, which when the Alabama Department of Public Health posted the most recent data, this is how COVID has affected the state:

Since March 13, 2020:
1,644,533 cases
55,265 deaths

So far in 2023:
21,032 cases
148 deaths

Alabama’s 7-day positive COVD test rate is 5.4%. That is slightly higher than the 3.5% rate of one year ago.

WAKA 8 talked with State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris in 2022 as he remembered the start of the pandemic.

“It was kind of a surreal time,” he said. “It just felt like we knew something was happening, but we didn’t know what it was. We didn’t have information, and really worst of all, we didn’t have treatments or therapy for anybody. It was a pretty scary time, to be honest.”