Page 26 - Florida Sentinel 5-8-20

COVID-19
Black Nurse In Detroit Dies From COVID-19 After Being Turned Away From Hospital 4 Times
A Black nurse who spent 31 years working for Beaumont Hospital in Farmington Hills died after experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and being turned away four times from the hospital, Fox2Detroit reported.
The tragic story of Debo- rah Gatewood is another re- minder of the struggles thousands of Black people have experienced in getting testing or treatment for COVID-19 since the virus emerged more than three months ago.
The 63-year-old spent weeks on the front lines work- ing at Beaumont Hospital, which is in a suburb of Detroit. She fell sick with a cough and fever before going to the ER on March 16. But when Gate- wood visited the hospital, she was given cough syrup and told to rest at home.
Kaila Corrothers, her daughter, spoke with Fox2De- troit and said despite her mother's symptoms, the doc- tors did not test her.
"They sent her home saying you are showing signs of COVID. So they were confirm- ing that she most likely had
Deborah Gatewood and granddaughter.
COVID, but they did not test her. The fact that she got in- fected by doing the job she did for 31 years and she couldn't get taken care of by her own family, meaning Beaumont, it’s sad. It is disheartening to say the least," Corrothers said.
Gatewood went back to the ER three more times, and each time the hospital told her to rest at home despite her ris- ing fever and worsening condi- tion, Corrothers told Fox2Detroit.
By the end of March, Gate- wood developed bi-lateral pneumonia and collapsed be- fore being taken to Sinai-Grace Hospital where she eventually
passed away.
"All of this time when
you're telling her to go home and rest it off how do you really rest off bi-lateral pneumonia other than cough medicine to cough it out, it's too severe at this point. I just went up to the hospital and sat in the parking lot. If this was as close as I can be to her if this is going to hap- pen, I'm going to sit in my car until I get that phone call," Corrothers said.
Corrothers spoke sorrow- fully about how her mother was planning to retire in less than two years so that she could spend more time with her grandchild.
Should You Wear A Mask In The Car?
Many drivers across Tampa Bay have been spotted wearing face masks behind the wheel. But is it necessary? Dr. Paul Nanda, TGH Ur- gent Care powered by Fast Track chief medical officer, says wearing a mask is a good idea if you are sick and some- one else is in the car with you.
He says it also makes sense if you are carpooling or ride-sharing.
Otherwise, it could create other dangers. Like reducing your field of vision.
“I’ve seen people wearing bandannas and homemade masks pretty high on their
face, and then you’re actually worrying about having a car accident because you’re wear- ing a mask,” said Nanda.
Trump Orders U. S. Meat Plants To Stay Open During Pandemic Despite Coronavirus Outbreaks
President Trump signed an executive order late Tuesday compelling U.S. meat plants to stay open through the coron- avirus pandemic — even though several facilities have closed down because of deadly out- breaks.
The order designates meat processing as an essential serv- ice under the Defense Produc- tion Act and notes that recent plant closures have resulted in severe shortages of poultry, pork and beef at supermarkets across the country.
“Such closures threaten the continued functioning of the na-
PRESIDENT TRUMP (Doug Mills/Getty Images)
tional meat and poultry supply chain, undermining critical in- frastructure during the national emergency," the order states.
U. S. Jobless Claims Top 30 Million As Coronavirus Continues To Devastate Economy
Around 3.8 million more workers filed for first-time em- ployment benefits last week, bringing the national jobless total to a staggering 30 million — or around 18 percent of the workforce.
Continuing claims, or the number of people receiving on- going benefits, hit 18 million last week, far surpassing the recessionary peak of 6.6 mil- lion, according to data released Thursday from the Depart- ment of Labor.
Nationwide lockdowns led to the abrupt shutdown of the economy in mid-March, leav- ing millions of people scram- bling to file for unemployment insurance. The sheer volume of applicants overwhelmed the system, with many states re- porting website outages and hourslong delays on telephone helplines.
That has led to inaccurate accounting of the jobless, with
John Poe, a small-business owner, speaks to a state worker through an intercom, while his son Hunter waits his turn at a Mis- sissippi job center in Canton on Wednesday, April 29, 2020.
many people reporting waits of six weeks or more.
States have ramped up staff at workforce centers, with New York adding 1,000 more work- ers and Texas tripling the size of its phone center staff. But that is still not enough.
According to new data from
the Labor Department, Califor- nia — the first state to issue a stay-at-home order — paid only 1 in 8 claims in March. With an estimated labor force of 19.5 million, 3.3 million Cal- ifornians have filed unemploy- ment applications in the four weeks after March 14.
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