Madison County is starting to see a slight decline in Covid-19 patients.
Right now, the county is dealing with 200 inpatients sick with the virus.
WAAY-31 spoke to Huntsville Hospital's CEO about what this means as far as wait times and access to the ER.
The CEO says in the last two weeks we've seen a decline of nearly 10% as far as the amount of Covid inpatients.
Despite that decline, Madison County hospitals are still inundated with unvaccinated people and the number of people in the ICU is still not going down.
The hospital says it has taken the necessary steps to help Covid patients as well as people dealing with medical emergencies.
"For example we've canceled our inpatient elective surgery to reallocate those resources so we can respond to an emergency when it comes in. Emergency response teams and hospitals are very good at triaging things. So when you have the most emergent condition: a trauma, a stroke or a heart attack, you're going to go to the front of the line and everybody is going to make it work," said Jeff Samz, Huntsville Hospital CEO.
Samz says getting to the end of the pandemic requires getting more people vaccinated.
The hospital continues to offer vaccinations Monday through Thursday at Huntsville’s John Hunt Park.
With the shot being offered at several various places, it being free and it saving lives, health leaders say it's not about just a singular person.
It's about our city, county and state as a whole, coming together to help save the country.
Vaccinations are being held at hospitals, some schools, urgent cares and more.
Even though we were starting to see an increase of people rolling their sleeves up, for the last 6 weeks our hospital system is still stressed with Covid-19 patients.
With virtually no space in the emergency room and the waiting rooms being full, doctors are saying now is the time we come together as a nation.
"We appreciate that people are wearing their masks in the community, by taking this seriously and coming together knowing that citizenship is not just your rights but also part of us being responsible is really what's going to help us through this as a state," said Dr. Arora.
Dr. Arora is the president of the Alabama Medical Association and she says she understands everyone is tired, but until we get more people vaccinated, we will continue to see negative impacts all around.
In the press conference, city health leaders also stated how they want to give a huge shout out to the medical staff because they know it's been a trying year.
They beg you, if you care about them, to do your part and get vaccinated.
