Examples of news alerts I wrote. These alerted my team on current news in the region.
#NEWS:NC/Gov. Roy Cooper recommends that all children in state's schools K-8th should wear masks indoors
From CNN’s Hayley Simonson
As the upcoming school year approaches, Gov. Roy Cooper, alongside Dr. Mandy Cohen, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services released updated mask guidance for North Carolina schools during a press conference this afternoon.
The updated protocols say all schools K-8th should require all children and staff to wear masks indoors, regardless of vaccination status.
“With only 24% of North Carolinians ages 12 to 17 fully vaccinated, and because anyone under the age of 12 cannot be vaccinated yet, we still have a long way to go,” said Dr. Cohen.
This comes among a recent surge of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in North Carolina over the last three weeks as the Delta variant currently makes up 80% of cases.
“There's going to be a big push all across the state from our office and from others to try to make sure that this is in place because we know how important it is to make sure that these children are protected and that teachers are protected,” said Gov. Cooper.
Dr. Cohen said they will be working with individual school districts to encourage implementing this so that kids can return to in person learning safely.
“If we see that our trends are going in the wrong direction, if we see that school districts aren’t keeping our kids safe and there can't be in person learning, we might have to revisit,” said Cohen.
#NEWS: MS/ Top State Health Official anticipates a “rough few weeks” of Covid-19
From CNN’s Hayley Simonson
Mississippi state health officials say that they anticipate that the current rise of Covid-19 cases is going to continue to put pressure on their health care system.
“We are going to have a rough few weeks, Delta is hitting us very strongly,” Dr. Thomas Dobbs said during a press conference this afternoon. “We are in the middle, or maybe even the first part of our fourth wave,” Dobbs said.
Currently there are thirteen hospitals in Mississippi that have zero ICU beds available, according to Dobbs. “And a significantly higher number than that have less than 10% availability,” he added.
The Mississippi State Health Department (MSDH) reports that 93% of Covid-19 cases over the past month are unvaccinated patients, and 89% of deaths in the past month are un-vaccinated individuals. Of the deaths reported in vaccinated individuals, all were 65 and older.
“We're gonna watch people needlessly die over the next month or two, for no good reason,” Dr. Dobbs said.
Of the 419 patients in the hospital, there are 138 COVID patients in the ICU and 57 on ventilators, according to the Mississippi State Health Department.
“We have once again threatened the healthcare system with an explosion of COVID, and we've got a long ways to go. It's gonna be difficult again,” Dobbs said.