The Memphis Fire Department spent more than $2 million on items related to COVID-19 during a two-month period to protect first responders during the pandemic. FOX13 investigated to find out how it is possible to spend that much tax money in such a short time. In just one week, Memphis Fire spent more than $240,000 on its coronavirus response.
- PUB DATE: 5/20/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WHBQ-TV FOX 13 Memphis

Greeley’s unfortunate status as the center of one of the state’s larger COVID-19 outbreaks has led to a high volume of pandemic-related work for the city’s first responders. However, in spite of the potential for exposure, Greeley Fire Department, Police Department and Emergency Medical Services personnel have managed to largely avoid significant spread of the virus within their ranks.
- PUB DATE: 5/20/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Greeley Tribune

Behind a nondescript strip mall in Carmel, Indiana, a short line of cars gathers mid-afternoon next to a large tent. Medical professionals stand out front, dressed head to toe in blue medical coveralls. People in the cars — many of them first responders — drive up to be tested for COVID-19. The test involves a really long swab placed deep into the nose, toward the back of the throat.
- PUB DATE: 5/20/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Kaiser Health News

On March 13, 2020, President Trump declared the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, outbreak a National Emergency. Since then, life has inarguably and most drastically changed for all of us. Global travel restrictions grounded all international travel. State-regulated stay-at-home orders suspended non-essential in-person business operations.
- PUB DATE: 5/19/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chillicothe News

EMS Week, which takes place in 2020 from May 17-23, is an annual time to recognize the life-saving efforts of emergency medical services personnel. While celebratory events won’t take place in person this year, EMS personnel are getting more recognition than usual: even before EMS week, virtually and during daily cheers for healthcare workers, they are widely hailed as heroes on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- PUB DATE: 5/19/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Time Magazine

VIDEO: Two firefighters were injured while battling a fire on the city’s South Side. The fire started just before 6 a.m. Tuesday on the first-floor of Vincennes Food Mart in the 7900 block of South Vincennes Avenue in the Gresham neighborhood. The building houses a business and apartments. The fire was upgraded to a 3-11 and spread to a second building, according to fire officials.
- PUB DATE: 5/19/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WGN-TV 9 Chicago

A new mobile app, 1-Check COVID, has been launched by the University of Nebraska as a screening guide for individuals to use as reference if they are concerned that they might have the coronavirus. The app will also help first responders and other health care providers determine a person's likelihood of carrying the disease.
- PUB DATE: 5/19/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KFXL-TV FOX 51 Lincoln

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans a nationwide study of up to 325,000 people to track how the new coronavirus is spreading across the country into next year and beyond, a CDC spokeswoman and researchers conducting the effort told Reuters. The CDC study, expected to launch in June or July, will test samples from blood donors in 25 metropolitan areas for antibodies created when the immune system fights the coronavirus, said Dr.
- PUB DATE: 5/19/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NBC News

VIDEO: Twelve firefighters were injured in a fire and explosion in the Toy District of downtown Los Angeles on Saturday evening. As of Sunday afternoon, three have been discharged and eight remain hospitalized. The incident began with a fire that was first reported around 6:26 p.m. on Saturday. As firefighters were responding to the blaze inside the building at 327 East Boyd Street, the site of a butane honey oil supplier called Smoke Tokes, there was a “significant explosion,” said LAFD Captain Erik Scott.
- PUB DATE: 5/18/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KCAL-TV CBS 9 Los Angeles

Police and fire investigators launched a criminal probe Sunday into the cause of an explosion at a hash oil manufacturer in downtown Los Angeles that sent firefighters running for their lives. Detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department’s major crimes division were working with the city Fire Department’s arson investigators to determine what might have sparked the blast that shot a ball of flames out of the building Saturday night and scorched a fire truck across the street, police spokesman Josh Rubenstein said.
- PUB DATE: 5/18/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KTLA-TV 5 CW Los Angeles

Sunday is the beginning of National EMS Week when the U.S. recognizes those who serve in emergency medical services. According to the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians (NAEMT), National EMS Week was started in 1974 by then-President Gerald Ford. This year in particular, the week is a good opportunity to honor the service that EMTs and paramedics provide to society in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, "one of the most daunting and demanding challenges our country has ever faced," a proclamation signed by President Trump on Friday said.
- PUB DATE: 5/18/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fox Business

A Virginia 911 center is combining remote solutions with FirstNet connectivity as part of a multi-pronged strategy to ensure operational continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic today and to evaluate new technological options for the center in the future. Doug Campbell, deputy director of the Department of Emergency & Customer Communications (DECC) for the city of Alexandria, Va.
- PUB DATE: 5/18/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: IWCE’s Urgent Communications

Early in the novel coronavirus pandemic, Nick Fugate figured he would probably get infected sooner or later. As a paramedic with King County Medic One, he and his colleagues were transporting gravely ill patients every day, amid an atmosphere of uncertainty and urgency. Even now that hospitalizations have declined, Fugate puts his odds at 50-50.
- PUB DATE: 5/18/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Seattle Times

VIDEO: Firefighters battled a blaze that spread through an El Monte strip mall and resulted in a partial roof collapse Thursday night. Crews raced to the scene after getting a report of smoke coming from the strip mall in the 10100 block of East Valley Boulevard about 8:10 p.m., according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
- PUB DATE: 5/15/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KTLA-TV 5 CW Los Angeles

St. Louis County has nearly $175 million in federal grant money to spend in response to the coronavirus, but the county has been charging local first responders for masks. As some St. Louis County police departments and fire districts have found themselves shorthanded on masks and other personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 outbreak, the County Council approved $1.
- PUB DATE: 5/15/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Call Newspapers

The nationwide public safety wireless network that Congress created in 2012 because of failures seen during and after the 9/11 attacks is helping connect first-responders and public safety experts across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic. The law created an independent authority called FirstNet, provided $7 billion for it, and allocated 20 megahertz of bandwidth within the 700 MHz spectrum to create a nationwide interoperable broadband network.
- PUB DATE: 5/15/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Roll Call

Following House Democrats’ proposal of the HEROES Act (H.R. 6800) on Tuesday, the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) outlined possible impacts of the latest coronavirus aid package, and called upon fire and EMS professionals to contact their congressional representatives to support the legislation.
- PUB DATE: 5/15/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: EMS1

There might be no year where it is more vital to recognize the work of emergency medical services and paramedics, those on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. National EMS Week is May 17-23. Whether they work at a hospital, with a fire department, for a private service or a med-flight operation, these brave men and women put their lives on the line with every call they respond to, never knowing if the person they help might be infected with a virus they might catch and take home to their own families.
- PUB DATE: 5/15/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Seacoast Online

When the first U.S. case of the new coronavirus, COVID-19, was confirmed on Jan. 21, it appeared to be contained — the patient was a man living near Seattle who had recently returned from Wuhan, China and immediately isolated himself, and the local health department had conducted contact tracing to make sure that anyone he had encountered was now quarantining at home.
- PUB DATE: 5/14/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: People

Police Chief Eric Clifford fears the city could again become addled by gangs, drugs and double-digit homicides if the department is forced to lay off about 40 cops because of a deepening fiscal crisis brought on by the coronavirus. “Quite frankly, we go to the bare bones minimum of what we do – protect life and property – and we have to start scaling back on what we do as a department,” he said.
- PUB DATE: 5/14/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Albany Times-Union - Metered Site