Category: Coronavirus
Protestors Not Allowed Into Birmingham Council Meeting to Speak on Drastic Cuts to the Library Budget
Protestors gathered outside Birmingham City Hall on Tuesday morning, but they weren’t allowed to speak at the City Council meeting going on three stories above them.
The demonstrators held signs that read “Reject Woodfin’s Budget,” “Furlough Woodfin” and “Fund Books Not Brutality.” One neon-yellow sign read: “Dear Randall Woodfin & City Council: Y’all have got to do a better job pretending to care …”
On Friday, the Birmingham Public Library’s board of trustees made the decision to furlough 157 employees, the result of significant cuts in the budget recommended by Mayor Randall Woodfin’s office. Read more.
State Adds 583 COVID-19 Cases, 12 Deaths in Tuesday Update
Alabama recorded 583 confirmed new cases of COVID-19, plus 12 deaths from the disease, in Tuesday’s daily update by the state Department of Public Health.
There have been 131,988 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began in March, plus 14,596 probable cases for a total of 146,584. The death totals stood at 2,304 confirmed, 153 probable and a total of 2,457. Probable cases are those in which a person has a positive antibody test or has symptoms, has been exposed to the coronavirus but has not been tested.
A totalof 16,487 people have been hospitalized in Alabama with COVID-19 during the pandemic. There were 802 individuals in hospitals on Monday, the daily report said. That is up from 972 a week earlier but down from the total of 1,168 a month ago and the high of 1,613 on Aug. 6.
Read more.
754 New Cases of COVID-19 Reported for Alabama
There were 754 confirmed new cases of COVID-19 and two deaths from the disease listed in Monday’s update by the Alabama Department of Public Health.
Those figures pushed the number of confirmed cases since the pandemic began in March to 131,405 and the number of confirmed deaths to 2,292. Another 14,375 cases and 147 deaths were listed as probable.
The average number of new cases per day stood at 729 over the past week and 709 during the past 14 days. The latter figure, for the past two weeks, rose Monday to its highest level since an average of 741 on Sept. 11.
Read more.
COVID-19 Hospitalizations in Alabama Continue to Decline
The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 is continuing to decline, the Alabama Department of Public Health reported Sunday.
There were 746 people in Alabama hospitals on Saturday for treatment of the disease, the agency said in its daily coronavirus update. That is down from 775 a week earlier, 829 two weeks ago and 1,160 on Aug. 20.
The COVID-19 Dashboard showed 677 new confirmed cases of the disease on Sunday, pushing the state’s total to 130,651 since the first case was reported on March 13. Another 14,311 cases were listed as probable, for a total of 144,962.
Read more.
‘Be Like Pearl’: A Woman so Admired She Inspired New Year’s Resolutions Was Felled by COVID-19
FORKLAND — If the Wizard of Oz had known Pearlean Slay, he would have called her a “good deed doer.”
In the movie, that line was targeted for the Tin Man, who had come to the wizard in search of a heart.
To hear her friends and loved ones tell it, Pearl Slay’s heart was as big as the Emerald City.
That heart stopped beating on May 29, two months shy of Slay’s 71st birthday, after a month-long battle with the coronavirus, and she entered a lineup of grim categories covering the nearly 2,300 Alabamians who have died after testing positive for COVID-19.
Read more.
Alabama Records Highest Number of COVID-19 Cases This Month in Saturday Report
The Alabama Department of Public Health reported 1,156 confirmed new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, the highest daily total so far in September. The count was the highest for a single day since a total of 1,172 confirmed cases on Aug. 30.
The agency’s daily dashboard showed a total of 129,974 confirmed cases plus 14,190 probable cases of COVID-19, for a total of 144,164 since the state reported its first positive diagnosis on March 13.
The number of confirmed cases was below the 600 mark three times this week, dropping to a low of 504 on Monday, Sept. 14. Saturday’s report was the second in September when the daily total topped the 1,000 level — the previous time having been 1,038 on Sept. 5.
Read more.
721 New Cases of COVID-19 Reported Friday, But Trends Remain Positive
Despite an uptick in the number of new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, Alabama continued to show a positive overall trend in caseloads and hospitalizations from the disease.
The Alabama Department of Public Health reported 721 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, raising the total for the pandemic to 128,818. Another 14,045 cases were listed as probable, for a total of 142,863.
The case count was the highest since a total of 726 on Sept. 12. The average number of new cases stood at 674 a day over the past week. That is down from the daily average of 687 one week ago and 795 two weeks ago.
Read more.
Alabama’s COVID-19 Totals Increase by 574 Cases, Seven Deaths
The Alabama Department of Public Health reported 574 confirmed new cases of COVID-19 and seven deaths from the coronavirus on Thursday.
The state’s overall totals for the disease throughout the pandemic stood at 128,097 confirmed cases and 2,264 confirmed deaths. The SDPH Dashboard listed an additional 13,660 cases as probable for a total of 141,757 cases, and 137 deaths as probable for a total of 2,401.
Alabama’s COVID-19 New Case Averages Mixed, Death Reports Turning Upward
Data on the spread of COVID-19 in Alabama this week is a mixed bag, with the average number of cases higher than last week but lower than two weeks ago. Meanwhile, the average number of deaths has increased over the past week. Read more.
Woodfin’s Revised Library Budget Lower Than Expected, With $3.6M Remaining Until June 30
The Birmingham Public Library now has its operating budget for fiscal year 2021 — and it’s much lower than expected, which means “tough decisions” lie ahead for the BPL board of trustees.
During Tuesday’s board meeting, trustees lamented the “moving target” they’d been given by Mayor Randall Woodfin’s office. The city’s overall budget has been greatly reduced as a result of reduced business tax revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The library first had been allocated $12.8 million in Woodfin’s proposed FY 2021 budget, which was bumped up shortly afterward to $15.3 million, bringing it roughly even with its operating budget from this year. Then, board members said, their city attorney had given them a third number that was less than half of that — $7.039 million.
The real number, Woodfin told board members and city councilors during a “last-minute” informational call Wednesday, is even less than that. The library’s total budget in his recommendation for FY 2021 is $6.2 million, he said — and it’s spent $2.6 million of that since July.
“I want everybody to hear it at the same time,” Woodfin says in a recording of the call obtained by BirminghamWatch. “Your remaining budget you have from October 1 to June 30 is $3.6 million — not a dollar more.” Read more.
