Officials Urge Caution As Virus Situation Remains Manageable

TUSCALOOSA, AL. — Despite some worrisome local trends in line with a nationwide surge in new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, city officials pointed to some positive signs that could provide some short-term relief.

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"For Tuscaloosa County, we are still seeing a trend going up," said Tuscaloosa Fire Chief Robert Smith during Tuesday's City Council meeting. "DCH, [Tuesday] is the first day in the last five days that they have dropped to 60 or below. They are monitoring it real closely. We think this is a combination of not only sporting events, high school games, but looking at Oct. 31 Halloween, we had quite a few exposures during that time frame."

According to Bamatracker.com - an independent online data aggregator that is widely used across Alabama — Tuscaloosa County added 78 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases confirmed over the last two weeks to 1,153 and 8,574 since the pandemic began.

Smith provided the update on behalf of Mayor Walt Maddox, who was not in attendance Tuesday and said the holidays remain a primary concern moving forward through what some experts have speculated could be the worst months of the pandemic.

"With Thanksgiving and Christmas, more people will be out moving around and shopping," Smith said. "The virus is going to spread, it's being spread as we speak. We’re hoping through Christmas it won’t be as bad, but we have to continue to monitor it and prepare."

Another important point noted by Smith related to the recent spike in local cases identified through numbers published by the Alabama Department of Public Health. Patch previously reported on Nov. 13 that Tuscaloosa County confirmed 107 new COVID-19 cases in a single day, marking only the fourth time the county hit triple digits for new cases since the pandemic began.

"In Alabama, we’ve had a few spikes, the one round on Oct. 25 was from a special cause variation where we had a lab dump 4,000 positive cases into the system," Smith explained. "The last one on [Nov. 13] is not a special cause variation, it is because we have that many cases. [The state was] just below 3,000 cases in one day."

Smith said DCH has expressed some concern, even going as far as to have "dusted off ... plans for a surge if needed."

"We are still working with them as a partner and prepared to assist them in any way," he added.

DCH Vice President of Marketing and Communications Andy North said in an email to Patch on Wednesday that over the last few days, the numbers of COVID-19 positive inpatients at DCH have been on a slight downward trend.

North said as of Wednesday morning, DCH is treating 61 individuals who are positive for COVID-19. Among that group of inpatients, 20 are receiving treatment in intensive care units (ICUs), while eight of those are on ventilators and another seven are being treated on BiPAP.

"Since November 10 we have regularly had COVID-19 positive inpatient numbers in the low 70s and high 60s," North said. "This came after more than a week in the 40s. We are encouraging individuals to take extra precautions if they are considering gatherings including meeting outdoors, smaller numbers, social distancing, mask wearing and regular hand washing."

Impact by the virus to the city's workforce has also presented an ongoing stressor for department heads, with Smith saying Tuscaloosa Fire Rescue continues to be the hardest-hit city department.

According to numbers provided during Tuesday's Council meeting, a total of 12 TFR personnel are currently on leave due to COVID-19 positivity or exposure, representing just short of 5% of the department's total workforce. The Tuscaloosa Police Department also reported two employees testing positive or coming into contact with a positive case, with the overall number of city employees on leave currently at 23.

Smith also mentioned the rise in cases for Tuscaloosa City Schools, with the number of new cases climbing over the week for both faculty and staff. Patch reported on Tuesday that the school system was hit particularly hard with respect to its transportation department, resulting in drivers being forced run double and triple routes.

"Parents are encouraged to take their children to school for the remainder of this week if they can," TCS said in a statement Tuesday. "We hope to have most of our employees back to work once we return from Thanksgiving break."

A LOOK AHEAD

With the holidays approaching and the possibility remaining high for an increased spread due to large family gatherings, Smith reiterated that a shutdown of businesses is not something the city wants to do. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey this week also expressed similar sentiments, but all parties have previously said no options are off the table in the event hospitals become overrun.

"Is [a shutdown] going to happen?" Smith asked. "I cannot tell you the future of that, but I think as a city we need to be using social media, using the media to remind people about the basics."

Smith said those "basics" would include reminding the public about the simple concepts of effective hand-washing, social distancing and face coverings.

"Those are some of the basic things everyone can do and it really falls back on that," he said.

District 7 Councilwoman Sonya McKinstry then asked Smith about how the city could take a more proactive approach in combating the spread. As an anecdotal example, the councilwoman mentioned a previously scheduled sorority party that was cancelled Tuesday after backlash for the event having an expected guest list of more than 600 people, at a time when occupancy is limited in local bars and restaurants.

"There’s discussion of the president-elect possibly having some additional changes and enforcement functions, but I don’t know where those will end up," Smith responded. "The governor’s order is set to run out Dec. 11 at 5 p.m. We feel like she will extend, but we cannot tell for sure on that."

Smith then recommended keeping the mask ordinance for now, as it has been viewed as helpful overall by incident command with respect to community spreading of the virus.

"Even though our numbers are climbing, I feel like personally they would be a lot higher if we weren’t taking these proactive measures," he said.

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