Birmingham’s shelter-in-place order has been extended through April 30. The extension, approved unanimously by the Birmingham City Council on Friday, is intended to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the city by effectively instituting a citywide curfew, with exceptions for “essential” activities such as purchasing food, seeking health care or engaging in solitary outdoor recreation. Read more.
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Alabama climbed today to 1,315, and the state Department of Public Health reported 21 deaths from the disease. The agency is investigating 13 other deaths of people who had been diagnosed with the virus. Jefferson County leads the state with 325 confirmed cases, and officials are investigating five deaths in the county of patients who were previously diagnosed with the disease; none of those were confirmed to be the result of COVID-19. Read more.
Gov. Kay Ivey on Thursday issued an executive order to help reduce a backlog of state inmates in county jails as the coronavirus outbreak continues in Alabama. “Because the conditions of the jails inherently heighten the possibility of COVID-19 transmission, I find that it would promote the safety and protection of the civilian population to allow local officials to reduce the number of local inmates being held in county jails in a way that does not jeopardize public safety,” the order said. The order also “cut red tape” to allow quick expansion of medical facilitates and speed the process for out-of-state and retired doctors to work in Alabama. Sonny Brasfield, executive director of the Association of County Commissions of Alabama, said he expected the order to affect about 300 inmates. Read more.
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Alabama climbed today to 1,265, the state Department of Public Health reported. The agency said it has confirmed 17 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic and is investigating the cause of death of another 15 people who had tested positive for COVID-19. The total number of people diagnosed with the disease rose by 104 since Wednesay night, but the number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 remained the same. Jefferson County continued to have the most cases in the state with 327. But the state's most populous county still had no confirmed deaths from the disease, though health officials were investigating the deaths of five people who had been diagnosed with COVID-19. Read more.
The International World Games, scheduled for 2021 in Birmingham, will be held in 2022. The event, originally slated to occur July 15-25, 2021, will now be held July 7-17, 2022, the International World Games Association announced Thursday morning. The change is meant to avoid a clash with the Olympic Games, which was postponed to July 2021 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The games were originally slated to take place this July in Tokyo. Read more.
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Alabama climbed today to 1,013, the state Public Health Department said. The agency said it has confirmed 17 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic and is investigating the cause of death of another nine people who had tested positive for COVID-19. The spread of the disease in Alabama has been dramatic over the past week. The Public Health Department reported the state’s first death from COVID-19 one week ago today – March 25 – and said it had confirmed 386 cases statewide at the time. Read more.
Some Alabamians enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly called SNAP and formerly referred to as food stamps, got additional funds April 1 as part of a federal response to the COVID-19 crisis. “Current SNAP recipients will receive a supplement in their accounts that will take their March benefits to the monthly maximum for family size regardless of income,” Barry Spear, a spokesman for the Alabama Department of Human Resources, told Alabama Daily News. “Families already receiving the monthly maximum benefit will not receive the supplement.” Read more.
MONTGOMERY — State lawmakers walked one by one into their respective chambers, each keeping a strict distance from one another and many wearing protective masks and gloves as the House and Senate met at the State House Tuesday. The Legislature was forced to convene Tuesday to formally adopt a joint rule allowing for the postponement of a legislative session during a state of emergency. Fifty-eight of 105 House members were in attendance, each asked to sit with a seat between them in chairs specially marked by neon green sticky notes. Twenty-two of 35 senators were present in the much more spacious upper chamber, enough to conduct the limited business of the day: deciding when to reconvene the 2020 regular session amid the outbreak of the new coronavirus. Both the House and Senate agreed to meet again on April 28, hoping the worst of the outbreak will be over by then. Read more.
MONTGOMERY — Gov. Kay Ivey awarded 20 broadband expansion grants totaling more than $9.5 million to provide high-speed internet access to communities across Alabama. The grants are part of the Alabama Broadband Accessibility Fund and awarded to nine broadband providers to help fund multiple projects in their coverage areas. Ivey said that high-speed Internet is always important to have but especially now as cases of COVID-19 have increased in the state and more people are asked to work and learn at home. Public schools are now closed and students are finishing the academic year in their houses. Read more.
The number of deaths in Alabama from COVID-19 continued to rise today, with the state Public Department confirming 13 people have died from the disease and nine others are suspected of being victims. That is more than double the six deaths reported at the end of the day Monday. Read more.
