Birmingham Aids Outreach hasn’t let up on the services it provides to HIV-positive clients and members of the LGBTQ community. But the demands of social distancing have demanded the group re-create how it’s doing some usually ordinary things, said Karen Musgrove, CEO of BAO. See how the group is working around the difficulties.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced Thursday afternoon that public school students will not return to the classrooms this school year. Beginning April 6, the state will offer alternative learning methods of instruction. The state education superintendent is to complete that plan of instruction, Ivey said during a press conference. “Local school districts will make staffing decisions and determinations related to access to school buildings” based on state health directives, Ivey said. “We want to prevent a slide in students’ learning and achievement, and we are doing the best we can,” she said. Read more.
UPDATED: MONTGOMERY — The Alabama Legislature is on hold for now, and it’s unclear when legislators will return to Montgomery. The regular session ends May 18, and House Speaker Mac McCutcheon said he’s not sure whether the House could reconvene before that, making a special session likely. On the Senate side, leaders are talking about returning to the State House on April 28. Budgets and other important legislation had not been passed when legislators left Montgomery to combat the spread of COVID-19. Read more.
Schoolhouse doors will be closed in Alabama through the end of the term to avoid the spread of the coronavirus. Gov. Kay Ivey and state school Superintendent Eric Mackey began a press conference to announce the decision at 4 p.m. Going forward, schools are directed to use alternative methods of instruction. A full story will be published after the press conference.
As Dr. Don Williamson saw the coronavirus approach Alabama, he said he worried about three areas of potential shortages in the state. First was the number of hospital beds, ventilators and other equipment that would be needed. Second was personal protection equipment for medical professionals to shield them, and then others, from the virus. Third was the medical staff itself. “I have real concerns about COVID-19 on health care workers,” Williamson, the executive director of the Alabama Hospital Association and former state public health officer, said. Read more.
There have been 466 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Alabama, the state Department of Public Health reports today. The disease has been reported in 48 on Alabama's 67 counties, led by Jefferson County with 142 cases, Shelby Count with 50 and Lee County with 45. One death from the disease has been reported, that of a Jackson County resident. The person's name and other information about the case have not been disclosed, except for the fact that the patient was a part-time employee at the county courthouse in Scottsboro. a href=" https://birminghamwatch.org/number-alabama-covid-19-cases-rises-449-spread-across-45-counties/ "> Read more.
The Senate late Thursday night voted 96-0 to pass at $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill. Both of Alabama’s senators voted for the bill. Members of the House of Representatives have been called back to Washington to take up the bill Friday morning. Alabama Sen. Doug Jones, a Democrat, said the bill wasn’t perfect, but it did include a lot of good things for the state. Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, a Republican, said the bill would help state and local governments that are in desperate need while grappling with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more.
The scene on the usually congested 22nd Street South near the UAB area was much different than usual Wednesday. (Source: Tom Gordon)
As the number of patients being treated for coronavirus in the Birmingham area increases, UAB doctors say they are extremely concerned about the rapid growth of the pandemic. UAB Hospital reported 60 confirmed cases late Wednesday, with 30 patients on ventilators. There had been 18 on ventilators Wednesday morning. Grandview Hospital reported one coronavirus case early Wednesday, but the number rose to two by afternoon. Read more.
You don’t have to get infected by the coronavirus to see it have a painful impact on your life, as many workers – or former workers – have discovered. Christine Prichard, a freelance photographer based in Birmingham, has seen the impact of COVID 19 in a couple of ways. First, her teenage son is in the Dominican Republic and she’s eager to get him back home, even though that would mean two weeks of quarantine with him. But like many others, Prichard is seeing her business affected by the pandemic, as well. She frequently shoots photos of corporate events, and late last month, at an annual celebratory event for a trade group, she saw an early sign that the pandemic was going to have an economic downside for her work. “It was their annual meeting to kind of celebrate their sales. And at that meeting every year they would announce where they would book their annual trip for the top sales people of this product. And there was a guy that had to announce that they were not going to book the trip, pending what’s going on with coronavirus,” she recalled. “He said, ‘It's just too iffy. We don’t want to lose deposits. We’re being super-careful.’” That, Prichard said, was “kind of the first little wind I got that, ‘Oh. This could really be an issue.’” Since then, she said, “I haven’t done an event in a couple of weeks.” From gig workers, to teachers to even health care workers and others, many are finding that the pandemic has reached into their pockets. The pandemic has economic forecasters talking about recession in the wake of massive jobs losses. The headlines are about plants closing, unemployment claims rising, the government working on details of stimulus relief to American workers – and failing to come to terms. An NPR/PBS Newshour/Marist poll said that by last Wednesday, “nearly 20% of U.S. households have experienced either a layoff or a reduction in work hours because of the coronavirus.” Unemployment filings are rising significantly. Preliminary Alabama Department of Labor numbers show that more than 17,000 people filed for unemployment on Sunday and Monday, the Associated Press reported. In the week that ended March 13, that number was 1,434. Read more.
