Coronavirus live updates: How to email encouraging words to COVID-19 patients in Columbus
We’re tracking the most up-to-date information about the coronavirus in the Chattahoochee Valley. Check back for updates.
Piedmont Columbus Regional Creates Email Accounts to Send Patients Well Wishes
Piedmont Columbus Regional has launched two email accounts for families and friends to send messages and well wishes to loved ones currently staying in the hospital.
The hospital asks that the community please include the patient’s name and room number in the subject line. Additionally, if you don’t know someone who is a patient but would still like to send encouraging words, you may email a note with the subject line of “well wishes.”
Here are the two email addresses:
- Midtown Campus: PCM-well-wishes@piedmont.org
- Northside Campus: PCN-well-wishes@piedmont.org
$537,500 awarded to area organizations and medical facilities for coronavirus
The Community Foundation of the Chattahoochee Valley and United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley announced on Wednesday a second round of grant awards from the Coronavirus Response Fund totaling $537,500.
The money is being awarded to area organizations that are working to serve the members of the community’s most vulnerable populations. The grants include $37,500 to four organizations addressing basic health and safety needs: Columbus Hospice of Georgia and Alabama, Giving Kitchen, The Life Church of Columbus and Mercy Med.
The funding also includes a $500,000 grant to St. Francis-Emory Healthcare.
This second round of awards brings the total amount of grants awarded from the Fund to $673,600. Members of the community can donate to the fund at www.cfcv.com/coronavirus.
Overwhelmed officials can’t track COVID-19 spread in Columbus
Health officials who oversee 16 counties in the Columbus area are unable to provide specific information about the origin, patterns and spread of the novel coronavirus within all but one of the counties it covers, citing the large number of cases and a lack of staff.
It’s a problem at local and state health departments across the country, and one that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working to address in an effort to end the country’s extended periods of confinement and social distancing by stopping COVID-19’s spread.
All Georgians with coronavirus symptoms can now get tested by the state, officials say
All Georgians with coronavirus symptoms can get tested for COVID-19 at state-run collection sites, the Georgia Department of Public Health announced Wednesday.
Georgia unemployment claims reach record high in March
State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that the number of initial unemployment claims has reached an all-time high.
March 2020 labor statistics also revealed that the over-the-month increase for the unemployment rate was the largest on record.
The unemployment rate increased by 1.1 percentage points in March, to reach 4.2 percent. A year ago, the rate was 3.7 percent.
March showed a decrease of 77,876 employed residents over the month, bringing the total to 4,917,324, the largest over the month drop since February 2010. This number has increased by 18,497 over the year.
Georgia’s labor force was down by 22,434 to reach a total of 5,133,913, the largest over-the-month drop since March 2010 and the lowest labor force total since September 2019. This total was up 47,461 from this time last year.
This story was originally published April 16, 2020 at 9:12 AM.
