UA System: 61% Of Students On Tuscaloosa Campus Have Received At Least One Vaccine Dose

TUSCALOOSA, AL — The COVID-19 vaccination rate continues its slow climb at the University of Alabama, while the number of new cases among students and faculty have stayed low in recent weeks, the UA System reported on Monday.

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According to the system's online COVID-19 dashboard, 61% of students have reported receiving at least one dose of the vaccine, in addition to seven new cases identified among students from Oct. 4-10. Conversely, the number of employee cases for the Tuscaloosa campus was higher during this time, at eight, while 73% of employees reported receiving at least one dose of the vaccine.

To date, 18,204 total doses of the vaccine have been administered on the Tuscaloosa campus.

The news comes as hospitalizations continue to trend in a positive direction for DCH Health System, which reported six new COVID-19 inpatients Monday.

In total, the Tuscaloosa health care provider logged 72 patients testing positive for the virus to begin the week, which marks a noticeable improvement from over 100 two weeks ago.

It is worth noting, however, that 24 patients have died at DCH over the last two weeks after testing positive for the virus, bringing the hospital's overall death toll to 729. It remains unclear how many of these deaths were Tuscaloosa County residents.

Ahead of Tuesday's anticipated update of the Alabama Department of Public Health's online COVID-19 vaccination dashboard, a total of 95,311 Tuscaloosa County residents had received at least one dose of the vaccine, which is still less than half of the population of the metropolitan area.

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