In Alabama, only Mobile County publishes coronavirus cases by postcode

As Alabama enters another week of COVID-19 shutdown, state and county health authorities are increasingly dependent on valuable patient data to identify viral hotspots, leading healthcare professionals to And the public can now understand the real meaning of the data.

The Mobile County Health Department (MCHD) has made its postcodes and other demographic information available to the public since April 13. The data also includes the age, race, and gender of the infected or dead person.

However, postal code data can be used by health professionals and county authorities to focus on areas of greater damage, where certain parts of the county are infected with how and why certain parts are more affected than others. You can find out what you are doing. This will allow health professionals to focus more on efforts and resources, leading investigators to sources in nursing homes and church groups, for example. Moreover, knowing where the hotspots are can help the public in making decisions.

According to the latest data on Monday, 36605 areas of mobile accounted for less than 10.6% of all infections. The area with 20,000 inhabitants to the south of the city is the area with the highest infection rate, but nonetheless is not the largest total live damage area.

The regions with the highest infection rates are listed as “Other 365” and “Other 366” only. Together, these two areas make up about 55% of all infections.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has specific rules regarding the public disclosure of complete postal code information.

“HIPAA regulations limit providing information in a five-digit zip code with less than 20,000 residents,” said Mark Bryant, MCHD spokeswoman. “If you have less than 20,000 residents, you can list the first three digits.”

Bryant added: “With these limits, we’ve added a colored mobile county map that shows the relative density of zero (white) or more than 70 (dark blue) cases.”

The dark blue area below corresponds to the densely populated area of ​​western mobile, returning to the city’s midtown and south.

A small portion of postal code data is currently unknown, leaving a small gap in knowledge about how viruses spread. Dr. Rendi Murphree, epidemiologist at MCHD, said that most of these unknown postal codes came from private clinics rather than hospitals or doctors’ clinics.

“Many of the postal codes are unknown because they are behind the eight-ball in the survey,” she said on Friday on TV. “So we know about positive laboratories, and as soon as we know it, we know it on our live dashboard. Then we went to the system to get that positive lab and that person on the same day. You must pray that they have a phone number you can call, and that is not always the case, especially as part of the impetus through clinics and pop-up clinics. It has not always been good to get a good, accurate address and phone number. “

She added. “So, if it’s not in the lab’s report, then we need to use some of the people looking for service and try to get the right phone number for them. That’s why we have so many missing zip codes. “

Jefferson and Mobile County Health Department Authority to make decisions Set rules at the local level for the two most populous counties in the state. However, in Jefferson County, local health authorities have not yet published information about where the major hotspots in the county are.

Alabama Department of Public Health Other 65 counties by zip code have not been released.

Given the tremendous damage to the African American community, President William Parker of the Birmingham City Council and other members of the community have requested Jefferson County to publish the postal code data for the COVID-19 case. Dr. Mark Wilson, a county health officer, had previously said he would like to publish more data, but would like to follow HIPPA rules.

Birmingham has a population of 74% black, with approximately 15% of those over the age of 65 being the most at-risk demographic.

Mobile will also release demographic data on cases in the county. To date, according to today’s MCHD data, 927 people have signed COVID-19 in Mobile County. that is The highest total in the state. Of this number, just over 11 percent were hospitalized and 4.4 percent were dead. Mobile reported 41 deaths from COVID-19.

60% of all people infected in Mobile County are women, and the majority are African Americans. State released as well Demographic data of cases and deaths.

Dr. Murprhee said demographic information, including postal codes, is important.

“It’s about female, and it’s mostly in the 25-65 age group, but it’s about 62.5 percent, as a larger percentage than we want is over 65, she said She said. “It also tells us that we have the most cases in our county’s most populous area. You won’t see so many cases in the outer zip code. Live farther away and often don’t crowd the grocery store or anything like that, like what we see behind the scenes. ”

Dr. Murfree says people in the African American community are at increased risk of coronavirus due to increased diabetes and other underlying health conditions.