Tennessee reporter tracked months of COVID-19 deaths. Then counted her grandmother among them Micaela A Watts, Memphis Commercial Appeal
These vaccine fairies are helping people in need get their COVID-19 shots
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MEMPHIS, Tenn.
This is a reporter’s notebook column by breaking news reporter Micaela Watts, who has spent the past year covering the COVID-19 pandemic in Memphis from her home office until a phone call sent her into one of the area COVID-19 wards.
The nurse began preparing me as we wound our way through the labyrinth of the still-new Shorb Tower at Methodist University hospital.
I had been told one family member could visit a day, for one hour a day while she was in palliative care. But her oxygen was nose-diving , quickly. The staff had alerted my father, who called me and said, “You should be the one to go.”
I asked the nurse leading me, Brett, a young man with a wife and a child at home, “Have you been in the COVID unit for the entirety of the pandemic?”
Yes, he said. He had worked in COVID-19 units within the region’s two largest hospital systems, Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare and Baptist Memorial Health Care. He had managed to avoid contracting the virus in this time. It had been a long year of worrying he would infect his family.
The doors of the COVID-19 unit on the sixth floor resembled a commercial walk-in fridge. Heavy, opaque, no windows. To the side of the doors, bins stacked into columns were brimming with personal protective equipment. The excess was oddly comforting.
Baptist Memorial donates PPE to Shelby County Schools
Baptist Memorial doantes PPE to Shelby Co. Schools By Arianna Poindexter | March 5, 2021 at 6:04 PM CST - Updated March 5 at 6:44 PM
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - Friday marks the end of the first week of in-person learning for some Shelby County Schools students, and Baptist Memorial Health Care made sure the district is prepared to welcome another group of students on Monday.
Baptist Memorial Health Care donated 30,000 face masks, 8,000 face shields and 2,000 bottles of hand sanitizer.
“The safer we keep the community, the better it is for everyone and all of us at the hospital,” said Catherine Williams with Baptist Memorial.
While Tennessee residents wait for more doses of the COVID-19 vaccines to become available and open appointment slots fill up quicker than Beyoncé tickets sell out, questions remain about whether people should put off other shots, like the new shingles vaccine, if they intended to get the COVID-19 vaccine soon.
Dr. Steve Threlkeld, co-chair of the infection control program at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis, said, as with almost everything related to the novel coronavirus, there was some uncertainty on this topic. While there are no known risks to getting the COVID-19 vaccine and another vaccine back-to-back, doctors and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it s best to wait if possible.