Officials at East Alabama Medical Center said they have seen hospitalizations of COVID-19 rise nearly 300% in the last 20 days.
"On June 26, we had 16 positive cases in the hospital," said John Atkinson, EAMC's spokesperson. "We have nearly tripled that number in just two-an-a-half weeks."
On Monday night, EAMC reported 45 COVID-19 hospitalizations, the highest number since late April.
"With so many new cases being reported every day in our community, the uncertainty of how many will turn into hospitalizations is what concerns our physicians and employees," Atkinson said.
According to graphics provided by EAMC, the number of ventilators in use at the medical center has steadily increased from zero on June 29, to eight on Monday, July 13.
Lee County is currently one of 39 counties in Alabama that has been deemed to have a "very high risk for spread in the community."
EAMC also reported performing 613 drive-through tests last week, the most performed in any single week since the beginning of the outbreak earlier this year.
The Auburn University Medical Clinic has also seen record numbers of phone calls and testing in the past week.
Last week, the Med Clinic reportedly performed 814 tests, 107 of which were positive. This equates to a 13% positivity rate.
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