Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed said he is quarantining after testing positive for the coronavirus and developing a mild case of COVID-19.
Reed sent a message on social media on Sunday saying he will be fine and encouraging others to get tested, vaccinated, and boosted. He announced the diagnosis a day earlier, saying he tested positive after returning home from a business trip despite being fully vaccinated.
“I’ll be in isolation for the next week while staying engaged in city matters,” Reed said.
Eric Mackey, Alabama’s state school superintendent, announced on Friday that he had tested positive for COVID-19. Mackey said he was vaccinated and had received a booster shot and was experiencing “cold-like symptoms.”
State statistics show more than 2,700 patients are currently hospitalized with COVID-19. That means Alabama is nearing its all-time high for pandemic hospitalizations, 3,084 in January 2021, according to the Alabama Hospital Association.
More than 16,800 people have died of COVID-19 in Alabama, giving the state the nation’s fourth-highest death rate, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University.
Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
