COVID-19 vaccines are soon to arrive at UAB Hospital, but rural Alabama and underserved communities are still being hit hard by the virus.
UAB is anticipated to receive close to 11,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine within the week. The vaccine will be given to UAB healthcare workers, EMS workers and workers from other hospitals in Jefferson County.
Dr. William Curry, primary care physician and associate dean of UAB primary care and rural medicine, said healthcare workers throughout the state are struggling to meet the needs of COVID-19 positive patients.
“From our smallest rural hospitals and health systems or clinics, all the way up to university hospitals, we are stretching capacity both in terms of space and personnel,” Curry said.
Curry said healthcare workers are experiencing a strain on resources.
“Every doctor that I’ve talked to around the state, from north to south, tells me that their systems are stressed and stretched and that they’re worried, so that’s a fact of where we are,” Curry said.
Curry said rural Alabama is seeing a tremendous lack of COVID-19 resources, including lack of primary care clinics and lack of testing.
“The doctor shortages are in underserved areas mostly,” Curry said. “Some of those are urban, but typically what we see is in a rural community where instead of one primary care physician per 1,200 people, it’s one primary care physician per 3,000, 5,000 or more people. So there’s a big discrepancy in rural Alabama.”
Curry said that while some areas are functioning better than others, it’s difficult to find a rural Alabama County that is not considered medically underserved.
“In our rural counties, the incidents of COVID by population, per 1,000 or per 10,000, is not only high, it’s higher than it is in almost any urban area of Alabama,” Curry said. “So you have a smaller county, 20 (or) 25,000 people, but because of the penetration of the infection right now, actually by population, there are more cases than there are in a place like Birmingham or Montgomery.”
Curry said there are five main issues that are challenging the fight against COVID-19. These include COVID fatigue, skepticism of the virus, lack of access to testing, time off work for recovery and timeliness of test results.
Through collaborative efforts with the State Department of Public Health and local partners, UAB Hospital has set up over 50 testing sites throughout the state. These sites provide test results within 48 hours.
Curry said that while buzz around the vaccine is exciting, the community can’t stop taking precautions.
“People are tired of this, we’re all tired of this,” Curry said. “We’re tired of the threat, we’re tired of the masks, and the sanitizer and all of that, but that doesn’t make it any less important.”
