Alabama announced on Thursday a record number of confirmed coronavirus cases that has stunned state officials.
Despite having only 11 deaths a day from coronavirus over a seven-day period, the number of cases per day rose by 93% to 848 during the same period. That number is more than 160 cases higher than the previous all-time number.
The spike comes just over two weeks after Memorial Day weekend when many Americans shook off cabin fever brought on by stay-at-home order and headed to the beaches and other social events.
Alabama's GOP Gov. Kay Ivey began slowly lifting stay-at-home orders in late April.
During an interview on CNN's "New Day," Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed (D) said the jump happened “because we opened up too soon. I think that we have COVID fatigue right now, and people are trying to fast-forward this process in order to get things back to the way they were before the COVID-19 pandemic really changed everything in the country, if not the world.”
Reed continued, “We’re trying to keep people patient, and I understand we’ve been in this since March and people are ready to get back as they see other communities in other parts of the nation open up, but we aren’t there yet."
Since the pandemic began, Alabama has registered 22,474 coronavirus cases, including 750 deaths, according to the state's health department.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.