Alabama city throws 'Tardy Gras' parade as pandemic ebbs

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — With both COVID-19 hospitalizations and vaccinations ebbing, Alabama's port city is putting on a Mardi Gras-style parade that will feel at least a little like the Carnival celebrations that were canceled earlier this year because of the pandemic.

Plastic beads and other trinkets will fly as nearly 30 floats from Mardi Gras groups snake through downtown Mobile on Friday night with high school marching bands, squeals and blaring speakers providing a soundtrack for the party, which coincides with a ship commissioning. Tens of thousands of spectators are expected.

“With so much interest we could have had more if space would allow, but parades can only be so long,” said Judi Gulledge, who is coordinating the event.

It's definitely not a Mardi Gras parade: Those can only be held during Mardi Gras, the period before Lent. But it will feel a lot like one, which is a big part of the goal after months of lockdowns, illness, deaths and face masks. Call it Tardy Gras, perhaps.

“During the past 14 months to 16 months or so it’s been very difficult to make it all work, but this is a real blessing,” Stephen Toomey, who owns a Mardi Gras supply company, told WALA-TV.

Statewide hospitalizations from COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus, are at the lowest point since April 2020, although more than 11,000 have died in Alabama and more than 540,000 have been infected. With only about a quarter of the state's population fully vaccinated, the state's immunization rate has trailed the nation for months.

Vaccination rates in Mobile County roughly mirror those of the state, with about 25% of the area's more than 400,000 residents immunized. Unless large numbers of people break the state's established pattern and heed the latest federal guidelines about face...