AUBURN, Ala. (EETV) - It's been one month since the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in Alabama on March 13. Now, the state has 3,616 cases of the virus and has seen over 450 people hospitalized.
The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation has data on every state in the country and looks at how well equipped states are to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak. It is predicting Alabama will have its peak number of cases this Sunday, April 19. States such as New York, New Jersey and Washington have already hit their peaks, while other state's peaks are still weeks away. There are over 500,000 cases nationwide, the most in the world. Just over 103,000 of those cases are in New York City alone.
A week ago, the model projected the state would need 340 invasive ventilators. Now, the model is projecting 137 ventilators will be needed statewide.
Governor Ivey launched a new COIVD-19 search engine tool this week. That tool can be found at covid19.alabama.gov. Users can type in related questions about the virus and read expert answers.
And, with severe weather happening over Easter weekend, shelters across the state were open and those arriving were encouraged to bring a mask and practice social distancing.
