Since being activated about a month ago, Alabama National Guard teams have completed nearly 130 disinfection missions at nursing homes around the state as part of an effort to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Read more.
Alabama's elected leaders have approved a plan to spend $1.8 billion in federal coronavirus relief money, despite Senate leaders saying they were left out of the process before their vote Monday.
"Some meetings took place in our absence that we weren’t involved in and I thought that was inappropriate," Senate Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston, told reporters.
House Speaker Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia, said House members were worried about slowing down the process of passing the state budgets and getting relief funds to those who needed them immediately, but there was no nefarious intent behind their meetings with Ivey last week.
"The House was willing to step up and bring suggestions to the governor," McCutcheon said Monday, "We were not working against the Senate. We were not working in secret. We were just doing our job as the House body."
Ivey said in an emailed statement Monday that her "friendly" amendment to the budget was to ensure CAREs Act funding was made available immediately to those who needed it the most.
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Related Story: Ivey Signs State Budgets Into Law
MONTGOMERY — Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law the state’s two budgets Monday after a unique and at some points tense final weeks of the 2020 regular legislative session. “I appreciate the hard work of the Legislature during an unprecedented regular session,” Ivey said in an emailed statement. “While we have yet to know the full impact of COVID-19 on our state, these budgets will ensure continuity of government, while being fiscally responsible. There is more work to be done, and I look forward to working with the Legislature in the days ahead.” A $7.2 billion Education Trust Fund budget was approved, as well as a $2.3 billion General Fund budget, both for fiscal year 2021, which begins in October. Read more.
Though deploying in much smaller numbers than they did during the height of U.S. involvement in the Iraq and Afghan wars, Alabama National Guard troops are still deploying, and in the time of COVID-19, they are doing things a little differently. About 30 soldiers with the Guard’s 666th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company are expected to deploy in the near future for about nine months overseas. Earlier this month, the soldiers with the Jacksonville-based unit arrived at a mobilization station for additional training before they deploy. But the soldiers did not hit the ground running. Because of the COVID-19 threat, they have some additional do’s and don’ts. Read more.
Alabama reported 11,771 confirmed cases of COVID-19 cases late Sunday and 488 deaths. That’s an increase of three deaths and just 72 new cases, though case reporting can be spotty on the weekends. In the past two weeks, the case count in Alabama has risen by 4,105, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health’s COVID-19 Data and Surveillance Dashboard. Read more.
COVID-19 cases rose in Alabama by 326 Saturday, bringing the state’s total to 11,699. Two more deaths in Jefferson County brought the state’s toll to 485, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health’s COVID-19 Data and Surveillance Dashboard. Read more.
In the month before Alia Tunagur reached her 30th birthday, she easily could have questioned whether she would make it to that milestone. “To be honest,” she said, “I wouldn’t let my mind go there.” It was during that final month of her 29th year that Tunagur, a health care professional in Birmingham, battled the novel coronavirus. Born in Saudi Arabia, Tunagur celebrated her latest birthday on May 2 and continues to celebrate having successfully run the gauntlet known around the world as COVID-19. It is a sickness unlike any she had ever experienced. Tunagur remembers March 15, the first day she realized something was wrong “It was just different,” she said. “It was cold/flu-like but I was hypervigilant and overly concerned because I knew that I have a compromised immune system (because of an) autoimmune disorder.” Taking no chances, she isolated herself in the basement apartment at her parents’ house. Her sinuses were congested, her throat was sore, and she was exhausted despite having had a full night of sleep. “I had a feeling,” she said, “that things weren't normal.” Read more.
Alabama had 11,373 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus Friday night, 272 more cases than the day before, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health’s COVID-19 Data and Surveillance Dashboard. Ten people died of the disease Friday, bringing the state’s total deaths to 483. All but 21 of those people had one or more underlying health conditions, which puts people at a higher risk of death from the disease. Read more.
A recent survey by the Alabama Nursing Association shows that nurses on the frontlines of the COVID-19 battle have been concerned about a lack of personal protection equipment, their own health, taking the virus home to their families and having the needed time to spend with patients isolated from their loved ones. Others, furloughed by public health orders that stopped elective surgeries and procedures, worried about paying their bills and even their own health insurance. Read more.
Hurricane season starts June 1. That’s nothing new for those who live along the Gulf Coast, but what is new this year is that hurricane season will happen during the coronavirus pandemic. Read more.
