Mayor Says Rising Hospitalizations Likely Due To Community Spread

TUSCALOOSA, AL. — Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox on Tuesday attributed a drastic rise in new coronavirus hospitalizations to increased spread in the community and not due to operations at local institutions as inpatient totals in Tuscaloosa and Northport continued a climb to 78 cases.

As of 3:45 p.m. Tuesday, DCH Health System reported adding seven new inpatients, while 22 patients are currently being treated in intensive care units (ICUs) at the two hospitals. Despite the jump in new hospitalizations, Tuesday's inpatient total is only up by six cases from two weeks ago, when the county reported another spike patients being admitted to the hospital as of Oct. 27.

During that timespan, the number of hospitalizations fell to as low as 43 on Nov. 4, before seeing another sustained uptick leading to Tuesday.

ALSO READ: DCH Sees Sharp Rise In Coronavirus Cases As County Total Tops 8k

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"The thing I think that should get all of our attention is really this past week," Maddox pointed out, again highlighting the threshold of 60 inpatient cases as a metric for concern as cases continue to climb. "That, to me, is a warning sign. It doesn’t mean we’re in full alert yet, but certainly we have to take it very seriously knowing that the hospital’s capacity gets utilized more heavily."

Maddox, speaking to the Tuscaloosa City Council during its pre-meeting briefings, then reminded officials that DCH added 20 new inpatients on Monday, which he said could end up resulting in Tuscaloosa seeing its highest number of hospitalizations since a spike in late July and early August.

"You look at where we were on Wednesday [Nov. 4] and you see we hit 15 [new inpatients] on Wednesday," he said. "In fact, of the last six days, we’ve only had one below 10 admitted to either DCH Regional or Northport."

Looking back to the last major spike for DCH Health System, which saw hospitalizations surge into the triple-digits, Maddox stressed the importance of city leaders and the public doing all it can to avoid further spread resulting in another week of inpatient influxes for the system.

"The other thing that gives me pause ... it’s not institutional related," he said. "It's not a nursing home or geriatric center. It's more community spread and we can't pinpoint a particular area and say that's why that number has increased."

While concerns have previously been discussed about what a return to in-person instruction at local schools and institutions of higher learning could mean for the spread of the virus locally, Maddox said it would be easy to speculate that the recent spike could be the result of Halloween or the widespread return to the classroom.

"We may never know for certain," Maddox said. "Those would be clear and obvious signs."

In considering if the spike in patients requiring hospital treatment would be a short-term or long-term trend, Maddox said city leaders and health officials should have a better idea of the trajectory in the next couple of days.

He also underscored the notion that despite positive news regarding potential COVID-19 vaccines, the city would still likely be "on its own" for what could be the next six or seven months as the logistics are worked out as a potential vaccine is made available to the public.

"Every time you think COVID can be predictable, it’s not and certainly we’re seeing that here in Tuscaloosa County," Maddox said.

Talk then turned to the not-so-distant future, with the mayor saying it is still too early to tell just how the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays will impact the local spread of the virus. He did have a slight tone of optimism, though, in mentioning that University of Alabama students will be finished with on-campus instruction for the fall semester on Nov. 21 and leave for Thanksgiving.

"It just depends on who you talk to," he said. "Some people say with students leaving, you lose a fifth of your population. But what happens when people come back in January? We will see. We don’t know the answer to that and will continue to be prepared."

Bamatracker.com — an independent COVID-19 data aggregator used by government officials across Alabama — reported on Tuesday that Tuscaloosa had reached 8,049 cumulative cases since the onset of the pandemic, with 118 confirmed deaths.

ALSO READ: TCSS Reports Spike In New Coronavirus Cases Among Students, Staff

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