How does the number of COVID-19 related numbers look after the first weekend under the new Safer-at Home order that allowed beaches and many retail stores to open?

Not very good according to Foley Fire Chief Joey Darby.

“To give you an update on where we are as of Monday, May 4, I wish I had better news number-wise, but the numbers over the weekend do not look good,” he said. “Specifically talking about COVID-19 cases in Alabama, the corrective for Phase One of reopening the economy was for us to see a 14-day noticeable decline, but what’s happening in our state since Friday, May 1, is we’ve seen not a daily spike, but a daily uptick, which is not good news.”

Prior to May 1, Alabama consistently averaged a daily case count of 200. By Tuesday, May 5, the state was averaging 335 daily cases, a return to the levels seen before the stay-at-home order was issued.

Symptoms of COVID-19 traditionally take a week or more to surface, meaning these new cases originated prior to the lifting of the Stay-at-Home order.

“Nearly ten days ago, we started seeing more and more vehicles on the road while we were still under the previous order,” Darby said. “People were getting antsy, and I believe that’s the new trend we’re starting to see and why we’re seeing an uptick. Time will tell whether the numbers are climbing again or if this is just a gradual adjustment, but it’s something we need to continue to observe.”

Darby said his team monitors the stats from Baldwin County daily, as well as numbers from our neighboring counties of Mobile and Escambia. While Baldwin County’s numbers have not shown an increase, both Mobile and Escambia have over the last week.

Mobile and Escambia counties both added dozens of cases over the weekend.

“So while the numbers from Baldwin County are relatively good, we saw a heavy increase in traffic starting May 1,” said Darby. “The question we have to ask is where are those people coming from? We certainly saw a lot of Mobile County license plates, as well as people from Louisiana, specifically New Orleans, where there’s a high number of confirmed cases. So that’s not good for us here obviously, and we’re going to have to watch over the next two weeks to see how that trends … I think there was a big hope that at the end of the Stay-at-Home order everything would be suddenly great, but the numbers we’re getting in don’t reflect that and we’ve got to be careful.”

“I think we have to watch very closely moving forward, and only time will tell what these numbers mean,” Darby said. “We’ve been blessed here in Baldwin to have all of our hospital facilities and first responders do a very good job, I think, in managing what we have with the resources that we have, and trying to limit our exposure the best we can. But we’ve got to stay diligent and not get complacent with what’s going on around us and the rest of the world.”

To keep track of COVID-19 case numbers in Alabama, visit https://alpublichealth.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/6d2771faa9da4a2786a509d82c8cf0f7.