COVID-19 pandemic in Alabama
The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the U.S. state of Alabama in March 2020. As of January 10, 2022, the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADHP) reported nearly a million confirmed cases of COVID-19 (or 1 in 5 people) and 16,630 confirmed deaths. At 330 deaths per 100,000 Alabama has the highest death rate in the US along with Mississippi.[2][3]
As of February 8, 2021, Alabama has administered 473,199 COVID-19 vaccine doses, equivalent to 9.59% of the population.[4]
Impact on sports[edit]
On March 12, the National Collegiate Athletic Association canceled all winter and spring tournaments, most notably the Division I men's and women's basketball tournaments, affecting colleges and universities statewide.[61] On March 16, the National Junior College Athletic Association also canceled the remainder of the winter seasons as well as the spring seasons.[62]
The 2021 World Games in Birmingham, originally scheduled for July 15–25, 2021, was postponed to July 7–17, 2022.[63]
Alabama Crimson Tide football head coach Nick Saban and his Nick's Kids Foundation donated to food banks, contributed to the 211 program, provided meals to DCH Regional Medical Center workers, and filmed PSAs.[64]
The debut of the Minor League Baseball team, the Rocket City Trash Pandas, was scheduled for April 9, 2020, but was postponed indefinitely, but on June 30 MILB announced that the 2020 season will not be played.[65]
The NTT IndyCar Series was scheduled to race at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham on April 5, but on March 16 the race was cancelled for the 2020 season only.
NASCAR Race Weekended at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega was scheduled to race on April 24–26 but was reschedule to June 19–21. NASCAR also made a second race in the fall at the track for the Xfinity Series. It has not been decided yet if fans can attend the fall race weekend or not (Fan were allowed to attend the fall race), the Cup Series spring race in June was allowed to have a limited number of spectators at the track.
