Health & Medicine

Statewide Moment of Silence honors 12,000 lost to COVID-19

The death toll from COVID-19 in Alabama has topped 12,000, with more than 640,000 deaths nationwide.

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  • The death toll from COVID-19 in Alabama has topped 12,000, with more than 640,000 deaths nationwide.
  • The death toll from COVID-19 in Alabama has topped 12,000, with more than 640,000 deaths nationwide.
  • The death toll from COVID-19 in Alabama has topped 12,000, with more than 640,000 deaths nationwide.
  • The death toll from COVID-19 in Alabama has topped 12,000, with more than 640,000 deaths nationwide.
  • The death toll from COVID-19 in Alabama has topped 12,000, with more than 640,000 deaths nationwide.
  • The death toll from COVID-19 in Alabama has topped 12,000, with more than 640,000 deaths nationwide.

Today at noon, the University of Alabama at Birmingham joined with the Alabama Hospital Association in observing a statewide moment of silence to remember the more than 12,000 Alabamians lost to COVID-19.  

All Alabamians were encouraged to participate from wherever they were that day in remembering not only those who have died, but also those who are currently suffering with COVID, the families of those affected and the health care workers caring for them. Employees at UAB Hospital and UAB Medicine’s outpatient facilities gathered at the UAB Hospital North Pavilion lobby, the Kirklin Clinic lobby or observed the moment from their work places.  

“This is to remember the lives we lost to COVID-19,” said Erica Bjornstad, M.D., a pediatric nephrologist and organizer of the event. “We’ve all lost something over the past one and a half years but nothing has been as heartbreaking as the lives lost. This is to put faces to those lives.  This is to help rally around our healthcare workers, our communities and our families. We are all hurting right now.”

To date, Alabama has lost 12,420 individuals to COVID-19, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health. 

“We are all tired of COVID,” Bjornstad said. “This is our chance now to come together. One, to mourn the lives lost today and remember how they touched us and touched our communities. But also not to forget. This is a call to action. We have incredible tools — multiple vaccines and masks that we know work. We have to pull together.”

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