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Thanksgiving is right around the corner kicking off the holiday season.

Right now some states are experiencing a significant COVID surge.

Alabama is not one of them, but health officials say precautions are key.

Dr. Karen Landers with the Alabama Department of Public Health says if we're not careful, Alabama could see a surge too.

"People are tired of all the mitigation," ADPH Assistant State Health Officer Dr. Karen Landers said. "I am tired of it too, but I think it's very, very important to remember that we may be through with COVID but COVID is not through with us."

Right now states like Minnesota and Michigan are seeing a surge of COVID-19 cases they haven't seen in months.

According to data from the , less than 65% of the population in both states is fully vaccinated.

No surge like that in Alabama right now, but Dr. Landers says it's important not to let your guard down, especially with the very contagious delta variant of the Coronavirus. 

"This virus is not through," Dr. Landers said. "It's not ready to go away and we do not need to keep giving it opportunities to infect people, cause disease and cause death and also to hamper our health care system for patients who don't have COVID."

More than 2.6 million Alabamians have rolled up their sleeve for at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Now some kids are able to be to be too. 

According to the Mayo Clinic, Alabama is averaging 459 cases of COVID daily.

45.7% of the population is fully vaccinated.

Dr. Landers says it's important to keep taking precautions, especially if you're unvaccinated.

"We want them to be safe too and certainly the mitigation standards are important, but also protecting the people that you might be around," Dr. Landers said. "You might be asymptomatic and have COVID. I think considering testing if you're going to be at a family gathering or in a large group is probably a reasonable thing to do."

Since April, Dr. Landers says most COVID-19 deaths in Alabama were people who weren't vaccinated.

Dr. Landers says the Delta variant continues to be the predominant variant.

"We're not going to make this virus go away," Dr. Landers said. "We can do a better job of controlling this if we have more persons vaccinated." 

The City of Huntsville's COVID briefing is scheduled for noon on Wednesday.

We'll be streaming it and keep you posted on what's discussed.