State superintendent talks spring semester outlook with cases, teacher vaccines

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - State Superintendent Dr. Eric Mackey says school COVID-19 case reports are down and teacher vaccination efforts are up.

The latest data on the school COVID dashboard shows 257 cases were reported in schools as of April 9th, up by 21 cases from the week before. State Superintendent Dr. Eric Mackey says those numbers are much lower than what we’ve seen over the course of the year, where at points it topped over 3,000. He’s hopeful recent vacations don’t swing data in the wrong direction.

“Now, a lot of schools were on Spring Break at the time and we’re worried it may tick up,” said Dr. Mackey.

Dr. Mackey said back in December some school leaders only had about 20 percent of staff who had gotten the vaccine. He now says overall numbers are more than double 20 percent.

“Now when they are offering clinics. The uptake rate is very good. It’s 80 percent which is much better than when we first started getting vaccinations,” said Dr. Mackey.

Dr. Mackey expects the majority of teachers either have the vaccine or will be vaccinated before the end of the school year.

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