Delta Variant Making its Presence Known Locally

Pandemic worries seem so early ’21.

But the COVID-19 coronavirus’ big, bad variant Delta crashed the coming out party and has heightened concerns that the worst of the pandemic might not be over.

At least, if the unvaccinated rate — which Alabama leads the nation while Madison County is below 50 percent — continues to be stagnant, health officials say. Delta, along with its rogue variant partners Lambda and Delta Plus, have cast a pall over communities, states and countries that had seen the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel.

A COVID surge is happening in Alabama and locally. Hospital beds are beginning to fill again because of COVID, care workers are becoming tired and frustrated, and health officials continue to practically beg those who are unvaccinated to get shots.

Huntsville Hospital and the U.S. Space & Rocket Center have teamed up to offer free museum admission passes to those who get free shots today at the center’s Davidson Center.

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Huntsville Hospital and Crestwood Medical Center have both seen a rise in virus cases in recent weeks and reported Wednesday there are 131 inpatients with 29 in ICU and 15 on ventilators.

“Ninety-one percent of our (COVID) inpatients are unvaccinated,’’ said Huntsville Hospital CEO Jeff Samz at the first COVID-19 briefing in a month at the Huntsville City Council Chambers. “Do the simple math and we’d have about 10 patients in the hospital if everyone had their vaccination.’’

According to Samz, there’s little room for debate on whether or not to get vaccinated.

“The vaccine drastically reduces the chances of getting COVID and giving it to a friend or a family member,’’ he said. “It drastically reduces chances of coming into one of our hospitals and almost eliminates your chances of dying from COVID.’’

Samz suggested everyone should at least follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and wear masks in close quarters — vaccinated or not.

“The Delta variant is incredibly contagious and has a thousand times more viral particles (than 19),’’ Samz said. “The numbers I saw (Wednesday) is the typical person with the Delta variant, which is the predominant strain, is going to infect eight people and you can catch it in one minute if exposed.’’

Ambulatory service HEMSI CEO Jon Howell said his first responders were seeing more than an increase in patients complaining about COVID symptoms.

“The stresses of this pandemic and the stresses around the issues so many people are passionate about are boiling over a little bit and sometimes we’re dealing with a lot of mental health calls,’’ he said.

As schools begin a return to in-class learning, Madison has joined Huntsville as systems requiring masks indoors and on school vehicles. Madison County Schools so far has deemed mask wearing optional. In the private sector, Randolph announced it would require masks.

Jeff Birdwell, CEO of the Huntsville-Madison County Emergent Medical Agency, said his group has been in constant contact with schools officials from the outset of the pandemic providing data and resources.

“I hope they take that into consideration and make the best decisions they can,’’ he said.

Samz debunked the narrative that COVID was only dangerous to older and unhealthy people, saying the current demographic of those infected is different from a year ago because the largest group of vaccinated people are over the age of 65.

Samz added of 121 current inpatients in his county hospital system the average age is 58 and there is one baby and three children hospitalized. One under-50 patient who recently died was healthy with no underlying issues.

“I highlight that to emphasize how important it is that everybody go out and get your vaccination before you become one of those people,’’ he said.