The number of Alabama counties now considered at very high risk for COVID is 26, according to the latest tracking by the Alabama Department of Public Health.

Last week, 21 counties were considered high risk, up from just 6 the week before.

Risk categories are determined primarily by the number of new COVID cases per day – counties where the number of cases are staying the same OR are increasing are considered “very high risk.”

Counties that are currently listed in the very high risk group are: Autauga, Baldwin, Blount, Chilton, Clarke, Coffee, Colbert, Crenshaw, Dale, Elmore, Henry, Houston, Jefferson, Lauderdale, Lee, Limestone, Macon, Marshall, Mobile, Montgomery, Morgan, Shelby, St. Clair, Talladega, Tuscaloosa and Walker.

Greene, Hale, Pike and Randolph are in the high-risk category; meanwhile, Choctaw, Dallas, DeKalb, Madison, Monroe and Wilcox are in the moderate category, meaning the counties have shown a decline in case numbers for 7-13 days.

Alabama has had 550,000 plus cases of coronavirus with 11,387 deaths since March of 2020. The state had added 2,573 cases in the last 14 days for an average of 184 new cases per day.

At the height of the pandemic in early 2021, the state saw case increases as high as 5,000 in a single day.

Alabama now has 256 people hospitalized due to COVID, that’s up from just under 200 at the end of June.

The state continues to lag behind almost all others in its vaccination rate. About 33% of Alabamians are currently vaccinated, ahead of only Mississippi which has about 30% of its residents vaccinated.

(AL.COM/www.al.com)