October 23 is National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. The American Medical Association found that Alabama physicians have reduced the number of opioid prescriptions by 38% since 2011, with the number of opioid prescriptions in Alabama dropping for 7 consecutive years.

  October 22, 2021, is the two-year anniversary of the heartbreaking, tragic news that the body of 3-year-old Kamille “Cupcake” McKinney was discovered. She was taken ten days earlier on October 12, 2019.

The search ended at the Santek Waste Services landfill near Gardendale. Kamille’s small body was left in a dumpster.

Her precious life, her beautiful face captivated all of us. Everyone felt her family’s pain.

New numbers across the nation are showing a brighter picture in the battle against the coronavirus, and that includes in Alabama.

The Alabama Department of Public Health reports 906 COVID-19 patients are being treated in hospitals, a number well down from several weeks ago when ICUs were overloaded with almost 3,000 inpatients.

According to ADPH, several of the state’s 67 counties have seen their level of community transmission rates decline. As of Tuesday, the state’s percent positivity rate is also down to 9.1% from a recent high of nearly 25%.

It’s another grim record the state of Alabama did not want to see. As of this week, more people died from COVID-19 this year than last year, despite an abundance of vaccines being available.

Alabama State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris is not happy to see the number of deaths continue to grow. Dr. Harris says all of these deaths were preventable.