WCBI NEWS AT TEN - 03/30/2020

WCBI NEWS AT TEN - 03/30/2020

Thank you for joining us tonight.

With covid cases in mississippi at 847 and rising, there's no question that there's a new strain on the health care system.

Courtney ann jackson explains what she's learned about mississippi's capacity for caring for covid-19 patients.

Do mississippi hospitals have the capacity to handle this covid-19 outbreak?

From a pure numbers standpoint---things look promising.

Kaiser health news data shows mississippi's ratio of beds per 1,000 people is better than most states.

But a look at space doesn't tell the full story.

Staffing is where the mississippi hospital association says things could get complicated.

"as the pandemic worsens, the need for icu beds, critical care beds, ventilators...which in turn requires a higher level of trained expertise to take care of those patients, that's going to be the biggest challenge that we face."

And they're looking at options that could alleviate some of that.

"working with the nurses association and a number of folks across the state, we're trying to have discussions about where do we find these additional personnel and certainly nurses that have retired that may have taken other professions that are willing to come back into healthcare and provide services at this time that they're called...are going to be a big part of this.

But there are still unknowns about how big of a strain the state's hospitals may be forced to take on.

"if you look at even a 20 percent exposure rate, you're looking at regular normal hospital beds, we would be in need of about 20 percent more beds than we have."

Kaiser health news numbers show 33 out of the 82 counties have icu beds.

Executive director of the mississippi rural health association ryan kelly notes the delay of elective services and folks heeding some warnings are freeing up some space.

"they're not using emergency rooms for things that aren't emergencies because they don't want to be there with covid-19 patients."

"we are still on standby, just waiting for what could be a massive surge in the next week or two...hoping it doesn't happen but prepared if it does."

So far, 32 percent of those who've tested positive in the state have needed hospitalization.

Alabama has 923 cases of covid-19 and six deaths.

That's according to the department of public health.

Governor kay ivey has not issued a "stay at home" áorderá in that state, but is urging residents to do just that - and avoid gatherings.

But now staying at home doesn't mean inviting all your friends over.

It means avoid interacting with others as much as possible.

Everyone at every age is vulnerable and we need all our people of all ages to start thinking about others- many that you love and care for.

Even if you aren't thinking about yourself.

So now and for the foreseeable future, please please consider staying safe at home.

Locally, lamar county is still reporting just one case of the virus.

Pickens county now has two.

Birmingham still has the most in the state with more than 250 positive tests.

Tuscaloosa county has 23.

Take new at 10 stinger casinos in mississippi remained closed amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Pearl river resort which is owned and operated by the mississippi band of choctaw indians announced tonight its facilities will be closed until further notice// originally leaders hoped to be back up and running by april 1st, but instead to comply with the cdc guidelines the facilities will stay closed.

Plans are underway in aberdeen to possibly shut down the city as the coronavirus continues to spread in the magnolia state/ mayor maurice howard took to facebook tonight telling people who live in aberdeen to be prepared for the city to close.

"we're going to talk about shutting the entire city down.

We're not just going to copy and paste another executive order from another city, right now i'm working on our very own executive order."

Mayor howard went on to say he's spoken with members of the board of alderman and expects it to pass at tomorrow night's meeting// the curfew in columbus will continue for at least another five days.

Mayor robert smith announces today that he has continued the resolution.

Smith says a civil emergency continues to exist in the city.

The curfew is in place from 10 pm until 6 am, except for essential travel by people over the age of 18.

The measure could be renewed.

If caught, you could face a three hundred dollar fine or six months in jail or both.

First look stinger first look summary: a quick moving weather maker will give us wet, breezy, and cool weather on tuesday.

While a few stronger storms are possible early tuesday the odds of severe weather are much higher along and south of i-20.

Nice and quiet weather returns for the middle to end of the week.

Monday night: cloudy with areas of rain developing.

A few locally strong storms with hail can't be totally ruled out across our southern counties late tonight.

Lows in the 50s with ne winds 5-15 mph.

Tuesday: areas of rain and thunder in the morning followed by scattered showers in the afternoon.

Mostly cloudy and breezy.

Winds nnw 10-20 mph with some higher gusts.

Highs in the low 60s.

Total rainfall may range from 1/4" to over 2".

The effects of the coronavirus are digging deeper into the nation's economy.

Today macy's said it will furlough a majority of its 130- thousand person workforce.

And the restaurant industry lost an estimated twenty five ábillioná dollars in sales in the first three weeks of march.

That's a devastating blow to an industry where many survive paycheck- to-paycheck.

Cbs's andriana diaz has more nats this delivery man in terry town, new york is none other than a top chef.... "dale talde!"

Dale talde had to lay off 44 employees at his restaurant, goosefeather...and is barely surviving on take out and deliveries.

Another broll shot of him making delivery or walking away from front door so when he got a 50 percent tip - it was overwhelming.

"you know we have five people left in the restaurant, it's like.

We're just doing our best to keep - they have families to feed, they have mortgages to pay."

5 to 7 million more people could lose their jobs in the coming months.

And server emily tucker already has.

We found lining up for free food in houston.

If this keeps going on for months and longer i guess starts looking at another career, which, this has been my whole life, so i don't want to.

A slice of the 2- trillion dollar simulas package is being served to restaurants.

The government is now offering restaurants loans áwith interestá to cover 2 and a half months of payroll.... and tax breaks.

Nats delfina cardona has owned cardona's in chicago for 18 years.

She laid of 10 of her 12 employees.

I feel like i want to help them.

But i don't have enough money to help them.// i feel like this is a nightmare.

She doesn't think the stimulus will be enough, so every day she works her own grill...and every night she prays for her employees.

Ad cbs news chicago.

When you watch commercials on wcbi, many times our advertisers are promoting their businesses... but during this global pandemic, they're promoting something much bigger than their products... they're spreading messages of hope and unity to help everyone get through these trying times... our quentin smith has more.

When bill russell has a message he wants to spread... he knows how to reach his audience.... nat russell often makes commercials about vehicles he's selling... but in a recent spot... he switched up his approach... nat this time he's bringing attention to the coronavirus..

Which continues to plague the country... rusell says he wants people to be safe and protect themselves.... but to also not be fearful of living their everyday lives... "i've got 65 employees and i've got to provide for them and their families and our customers.

We've got to stay here.

We've got to be smart about doing it, but we're not going to panic, we're just going to try to be smart."

Russell's isn't the only uplifting commercial you see.... room to room furniture is also spreading messages of hope... nat lisa hawkins owns the furniture store and in her video, she's challenging others to open their bible and read psalm 91 to help them get through this challenging time..

"i'm a person of faith, so it helped me and i was hoping to help other people of faith.

People deal with things in different ways, but it was just a life application that i could apply to myself to help myself, and i was hoping it would help other people too."

Although the two business owners are well known for their sales pitches and great deals... they say..

They don't mind using their platform to serve as an inspiration to their communities... "we are alive, we are healthy.

America has gone through many different things, many different viruses, many different illnesses, many different economic situations, and we are all still standing.

We will be standing after this and i just want to be an encouragement right now through these difficult times that we have."

"i'm not innovative, i'm not doing anything that nobody doesn't know, it's just you to be an encouragement right now through these difficult times that we have."

"i'm not innovative, i'm not doing anything that nobody doesn't know, it's just you have to be willing to say it, and i'm willing to say it."

Both businesses say they're taking and practicing all precautionary measures to keep everyone safe.... along with following federal guidelines given by the cdc... stinger wx open summary: a quick moving weather maker will give us wet, breezy, and cool weather on tuesday.

While a few stronger storms are possible early tuesday the odds of severe weather are much higher along and south of i-20.

Nice and quiet weather returns for the middle to end of the week.

Monday night: cloudy with areas of rain developing.

A few locally strong storms with hail can't be totally ruled out across our southern counties late tonight.

Lows in the 50s with ne winds 5-15 mph.

Tuesday: areas of rain and thunder in the morning followed by scattered showers in the afternoon.

Mostly cloudy and breezy.

Winds nnw 10-20 mph with some higher gusts.

Highs in the low 60s.

Total rainfall may range from 1/4" to over 2".

Tuesday night: mainly clear and cool.

Lows in the lower 40s.

Some upper 30s are also possible.

Wednesday: bright sunshine.

Highs in the mid 60s.

Light wind.

Wednesday night: mainly clear and cool.

Lows in the low 40s.

Thursday: partly cloudy and pleasant.

Highs in the low 70s.

Upper 40s for lows thursday night.

Friday: sun & clouds.

Just a slight chance of a shower.

Highs in the lower 70s.

Lows in the 50s friday night.

Saturday: variably cloudy and mild.

Highs in the mid to upper 70s.

Some showers are possible but the chance of rain is just 20%.

Sunday: variably cloudy.

A few more showers are possible with the rain chance at 30%.

Highs in the upper 70s to around 80.

Follow @wcbiweather on facebook, twitter, instagram, and on the wcbi news app take scott's reentry do you have sniffles?

Itchy eyes?

Headache?

It could be spring allergies.

We learn more in tonights health talk with baptist// summary: a quick moving weather maker will give us wet, breezy, and cool weather on tuesday.

While a few stronger storms are possible early tuesday the odds of severe weather are much higher along and south of i-20.

Nice and quiet weather returns for the middle to end of the week.

Monday night: cloudy with areas of rain developing.

A few locally strong storms with hail can't be totally ruled out across our southern counties late tonight.

Lows in the 50s with ne winds 5-15 mph.

Tuesday: areas of rain and thunder in the morning followed by scattered showers in the afternoon.

Mostly cloudy and breezy.

Winds nnw 10-20 mph with some higher gusts.

Highs in the low 60s.

Total rainfall may range from 1/4" to over 2".

Tuesday night: mainly clear and cool.

Lows in the lower 40s.

Some do you have sniffles?

Itchy eyes?

Headache?

It could be spring allergies.

We learn more in tonights health talk with baptist// hi, i'm dr. justin garner, i'm part of the otalaryngology team at baptist memorial hospital golden triangle.

I want to talk to you about spring allergies and it all begin with exposure.

Even if you've inhaled an allergen many times before with no trouble, at some point the body flags it as an invader.

During this particular exposure, the immune system studies the allergen and gets ready for the next exposure by developing special cells called anti- bodies designed to detect the allergen in the future.

You are now sensitized to the allergen.

The next time your body is exposed to the allergen your immune system kicks into action.

The antibodies recognize it and your body goes to work fighting off the invader by flooding your body with chemicals, such as histamine.

This is what produces your allergy symptoms. keep in mind that the amount of exposure matters.

There is a threshold or tipping point for people with allergies.

You can handle some exposure, but if it gets to be too much, the immune system is triggered to attack.

Some people, most often children, may outgrow an allergy completely.

For others, their symptoms get worse as they get older and the immune system gets weaker.

But once you have an allergy, it doesn't go away on its own.

Join us next time for health talk with baptist, when we will discuss some of the worst allergy triggers.

Mail your topic suggestions to health talk at wcbi dot com.

Health talk has been brought to you by baptist memorial hospital golden triangle.

Spx take spx full coach davis, thanks for joining us on the boxed out podcast.

Well, good to be with you guys.

As an sec coach who's been living, sleeping eating boards for so long, we're going into week three of no sports at all.

Just what have you been up to?

Yeah, you know, it's all of our lives have changed so differently.

You know, we're all working from home that started about 10 days ago.

So i'm here with my wife and my daughter, allie.

And then my, my daughter and her husband from tupelo came over going to spend about a week with us before they move into a house there.

So, you know, everybody who's working from home, we're all trying to figure it out.

I know everybody would discourage this.

Everybody's just i guess timelines.

You know, kind of when is everything going to start back to normal and, but right now, you know, we're in a dead period.

We usually be right now.

Recruiting going all the time.

So both my wife and my daughter ready for me to get out recruiting get out of this house.

I promise you that.

Kermit you just talked about about your wife and your daughter, allie, i know we talked last week you're hoping to get up there, but your daughter started up a library in your garage.

And you had a tweet that went semi viral last, please.

Well, allie has been so involved even we were in murfreesboro.

Allie was so involved.

She was an assistant librarian for probably 12 or 13 years.

In some of the local elementary schools there she has great affection for for books.

She's in probably three or four of the school systems here as as a teacher's aide.

So she knows all the kids and this was really kind of before you know, everything got really you know, shut down, is it was my wife reading her idea.

Take all the old books that they had to library was was closed and just have them come by the house and you could check books out and now he was acting like the librarian.

And then ali was was getting to the point.

He loves math, so she was making like math worksheets.

You got to be able to do math worksheets and all that he was going to hopefully the kids are going to bring them back to him and she was going to get to graham's and all those kind of things.

So yeah, it was really good and then when i tweeted it we started to have some you know some people from across towns to come over and see allie trust me alleys to star in our in our household i promise you i'm a way way distant second in this place.

And but then like i said, in the social distancing and everything got a little more serious analysis is what it is today.

And hopefully we'll crank that thing back up maybe in may sometime with everything's going on now.

And we go back a few years ago when you first got the job.

What do you think is the more challenging offseason dealing with all this or trying to implement your system when you first got hired?

Yeah, you know, it's not even a close second.

This you know, this is a this is the hardest thing we've all ever been through in coaching.

I can't imagine what a new staff would go through right now.

I mean, i talked to andy kennedy the other day you know brian burger i have another form assistant just got a division two job out of new mexico.

That least i got a chance then i can have industry meetings i got to know my guys, i could go have lunch with him in the cafeteria, stat, you know all the things.

So now you think about it.

You're doing press conferences when nobody there.

And you're now you're getting to know a person just like we are right now.

And so that would be really, really tough to try to get yourself acclimated to your job.

And think about it.

You can't meet any boosters either.

So, no doubt, this is a lot more difficult, but i can only imagine for brand new staff.

We're all missing march madness a little bit.

So i was hoping obviously you're a part of one of the bigger upsets in the ncaa tournament of the past decade with middle your middle middle tennessee team taken down michigan state laws a story about that team, or something that maybe a lot of people didn't know that game to maybe get heard march madness, madness fixing a little bit.

I had two guys from mississippi.

This is true story.

One of them was my starting point guard jacob riis.

We're playing oklahoma state.

He's from aurora high school.

He got hit a hard tough fall.

Had some reoccurring concussions.

And then we rolled in his career was done at another starting guard from the coast at simpson, a junior, the day before our tournament in birmingham, the conference usa tournament and broke his foot and one of the most gruesome injuries i've ever seen.

We stopped practice ambulance came and got him.

And so both of those guys so then we start the tournament the next day.

And in our team just we played great in the tournament, when i want a great game against old dominion.

By two points.

Reggie upshaw made a made a two shot foul to win it.

And then i said okay, the week before michigan state i said guys, we're not going to do one thing contact.

We went hard.

There's nobody no contact.

I was really worried about i was i was just paranoid about guys getting hurt.

I wanted to enjoy the experience.

And we just had this great air.

And one thing we hung on to us and guys, just just think about it shirts and skins, is just if you're at the park and all of a sudden rolled in and you rolled in.

Nobody thinks you're gonna lose pickup game, you know.

And so if you didn't nobody had their colors on and their names and this week i was kind of our mantra all week and we got off to this great start and all of a sudden 17,000 fans in st.

Louis were blue raider fans.

It turned into a home game.

And it was just