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COVID-19 numbers decrease as death numbers increase

More people across Alabama are rolling up their sleeves for the COVID-19 vaccine.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Doctors at UAB Medicine have noticed that positive COVID-19 numbers are slowing decreasing as more people get their vaccines. 

"I will say that hospitalizations and new cases across the United States do appear to be coming down," Rachel Lee, M.D. of UAB said. "It's very very slow compared to the last surge, we've had an eight percent reduction."

COVID-19 numbers are down but that doesn't mean everything is going well.

"Our death numbers are increasing in the United States and in Alabama," Dr. Lee said. "In fact in Alabama, we've seen a 177 percent increase in deaths over the past 14 days." 

ICUs across the state are still packed with positive patients seeking treatment. People are passing away from a preventable virus and that doesn't sit right with our doctors. 

"That's very sobering when you think of how many people we could be preventing illness and preventing death with vaccination," Lee said.

We've been battling COVID-19 for roughly two years, and there's more that we can do to protect our doctors, nurses and hospital personnel staff. 

Lee explains, "But we are still very full as a hospital and across Alabama, ICU's are still very full right now. In fact, 50 percent of the cases in ICUS's right now are due to COVID patients." 

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