The news was a mixed bag at the weekly press briefing of the COVID-19 coronavirus at the Huntsville City Council chambers Wednesday.

Jeff Samz, CEO of the Huntsville Hospital System, said the two facilities in the city and Madison have seen about a 10 percent drop in COVID-19 patients over the last two weeks.

“We’re very pleased to see this modest decline and we’re hoping it means we’re beyond the peak of the surge,’’ he said. “There’s still a lot of stress on the healthcare system, but (this) is the first day I felt we’re rounding the curve.’’

More good news: test numbers in the state are rising.

“It’s hopeful,’’ said Aruna Aurora, president of the Madison County Medical Society. “It’s reassuring.’’

But all is not rose colored. According to statistics at Beckers Hospital Review, Alabama still ranks just 48 among 51 states and territories with 40 percent fully vaccinated eligible people, just behind Mississippi.

And the state’s Intensive Care Unit beds continue to run at a deficit including at Huntsville, where Samz said emergency rooms still overflow and elective surgery is not an option.

Up to 50-60 patients are daily awaiting treatment in Huntsville Hospital facilities.

“When the hospital staffed beds are full, and the ERs are holding that number of patients, there aren’t as many ER rooms for ambulances and people who may walk in the lobby,’’ Samz said. “You may experience longer waits in the ER waiting rooms and that can cause delays for EMS waiting to unload their trucks because they are waiting on a room to open up so they have a place to put the patient. That’s just an example of the cascading delays that occur.”

According to recent figures, there have been 47,738 positive coronavirus cases in Madison County resulting in 562 deaths. Jeff Birdwell, director of the Emergency Management Agency, said the positive test rate countywide is 19.7 percent.

As of Wednesday, there were 221 inpatients at Huntsville and Crestwood Medical Center. Of those, 57 were in the ICU and 41 were on ventilators.

Samz said 86 percent of COVID-19 patients were unvaxxed. The average age of patients at his hospitals was 62 and there were eight pediatric patients and five pregnant women.

“The stress on the system remains very significant,’’ he said.

Aurora had more bad news. She said the federal government has told all healthcare systems that the amount of monoclonal antibodies, given to patients with more severe cases of the virus, would go down moving forward.

“We expect not to meet the demand,’’ Samz added. “We’ll prioritize.’’

And, in terms of last week’s City of Huntsville discussion on returning to work with masks, this idea has received backlash from state officials. In response to President Biden’s call for a mask mandate for federal employees returning to work, the state of Alabama’s Attorney General Steve Marshall vowed to sue President Biden. Governor Kay Ivey also expressed her disinterest in following a federal mask mandate for the state of Alabama.

The next weekly briefing will be Sept. 22 at noon.