COVID-19 numbers continue dropping in Tuscaloosa

Medical professionals in and around Tuscaloosa are reporting lower numbers of COVID-19 cases.

At MedCenter North, Nurse Practitioner Hope Arnold said she’s been seeing fewer and fewer positive COVID cases over the last month.

“I feel like since we have been seeing it for a few years now, more people have had it, more people had it run through their system, so people are handling it better,” Arnold said. “That could be part of the reason people are doing so well at this time.”

Arnold said she believes many COVID-positive people are using at-home tests to confirm their cases, meaning they’re not coming to doctors’ offices for tests or treatment.

“A lot of it is upper respiratory symptoms and people are kind of just  symptomatically treating it at home,” Arnold said.

She said it seems symptoms tied to this latest strand aren’t as extreme.

“It’s headaches, some body aches, some have fever, some just a mild fever, and then usually a sore throat,” Arnold said. “A lot of people say it starts out with a sore throat and a bad headache.”

DCH Health System on Monday reported having less than half the number of COVID hospitalizations they had just two weeks ago.

“Our numbers have actually been trending down,” said DCH Health System Vice President of Marketing and Communications Andy North. “We are at about 10 at the moment. Ten COVID-positive inpatients among all of our facilities. Two weeks ago that was about 21.”

Less than five COVID-19 inpatients are in the ICU or on a ventilator.