Some 7,283 cases of the coronavirus have been reported in Alabama since June 1, or about 29 percent of the state’s total confirmed case count, and while many of those who’ve tested positive may not be sick enough to be hospitalized, a doctor treating the sickest COVID-19 patients in Montgomery says he’s not sure how much more he and his colleagues can handle.
“Our seven-man group cannot handle much more at all,” said Dr. David Thrasher, the head of pulmonology at Jackson Hospital.
Thrasher and his six partners at Montgomery Pulmonary Consultants handle nearly every critically ill COVID-19 patient in the River Region who requires a ventilator or treatment in an ICU. That’s on top of their normal caseload of patients requiring critical pulmonary care.
“We’re twice our capacity, okay?” Thrasher said. “We’re working very, very long hours. Emotionally, it’s very, very stressful on everyone. We will do what it takes. We’re not going to give up. But there is a limit to what the human body can do.”
In an interview, Thrasher essentially begged the public to take the virus seriously and wear a mask when in public. And to not go out if you don’t have to.
“I’m a conservative guy,” Thrasher said. “I don’t like the government telling me what to do. But this is the only way we can control this until we have a vaccine. It needs to be done universally.”
Over the past week, as Alabama confirmed at least 5,000 cases of COVID-19, Montgomery reported about 15 percent of the state’s cases.
At least 68 people have died in Montgomery County — at least 28 of them in the past two weeks. Neighboring Butler and Lowndes counties have the second- and third-highest per capita number of deaths in the state.
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“It’s bad,” Thrasher said. “The hospitals are darn near at capacity. We’ve got a lot of patients. It’s just steadily gone up the last week. The number of cases. People on ventilators. It’s bad. Unfortunately, it’s going to continue to get worse, I’m afraid.”
At least 737 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Montgomery County in the last seven days — the most of any county in the state. The percentage of tests that are positive in Montgomery County over the past week, on average, has been nearly 27 percent. Sunday saw the largest daily increase in new cases in Montgomery County.
Despite having a much smaller population than Jefferson County or Mobile County, which until now had the highest numbers of COVID-19 cases, Montgomery County now has the most cases of any county in Alabama. At least 2,791 people have tested positive since March.
What is most concerning about Montgomery, experts say, is how few of the cases have been linked through contact tracing to any particular facility, work place or business. Few of the cases in Montgomery have been in nursing homes or long-term care facilities.
State health officials say most of the transmission in Montgomery has not been epidemiologically linked, meaning most new infections are through community transmission as people go about their day-to-day lives and come into contact with someone who is infected.
“This is a bit like a forest fire, where if you have an isolated area, you can have the firefighters