The city of Detroit will be the first to have specific test kits that could have results in minutes.
Normally, the swab tests take days to yield results.
Testing with these kits begin today but only for Detroit police, first responders and bus drivers.
Instead of waiting days to get results to find out if you have the coronavirus — you get results in 15 minutes. - PUB DATE: 4/2/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WXYZ-TV ABC 7 Detroit
Sacramento-area fire crews and public health officials are launching a new initiative to provide mobile health support to the community.
“We’re essentially bridging the gap between emergency services and the hospital,” Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District Capt. Scott Perryman told FOX40.
Think of it as an urgent care center on wheels. - PUB DATE: 4/2/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KTXL-TV FOX 40 Sacramento
The South Carolina Department of Health is creating a database that will give first responders more information about the places and people they’re responding to during the coronavirus pandemic.
The announcement came on Tuesday during a news conference with Dr. Linda Bell, DHEC’s Director of the Bureau of Communicable Disease Prevention and Control. - PUB DATE: 4/2/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WMBF-TV NBC 32 Myrtle Beach
First responders and emergency workers are urging Minnesota lawmakers to ease their ability to obtain workers’ compensation should they contract COVID-19.
A bill before lawmakers would encompass firefighters, paramedics, police, nurses, doctors and people providing child care to emergency responders, among several others whose jobs put them at particular risk of contracting the disease that had infected 689 and killed 17 Minnesotans as of Wednesday. - PUB DATE: 4/2/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Star Tribune
VIDEO: N95 masks are ideally single-use, which contributes to the shortage felt by first responders amid the COVID-19 pandemic. That's why one southern Colorado fire department sought out a way to extend the life of each mask.
South Fork Fire Rescue in the San Luis Valley says it's developed a way to safely reuse a mask up to 10 times. - PUB DATE: 4/1/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KRDO-TV ABC 13 Colorado Springs
A partnership between FEMA and New York City is aiming to bring aid to an overburdened FDNY EMS system that has received an “unprecedented” influx of calls due to the coronavirus (COVID-19).
Mayor Bill de Blasio, FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro, NYC Emergency Management Commissioner Deanne Criswell and FEMA Region II Administrator Tom Van Essen announced the partnership, which will bring more than 250 ambulances and approximately 500 more EMTs to the city. - PUB DATE: 4/1/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: SILive.com
The police and fire departments have gone full Star Wars on battling the coronavirus.
Cops and firefighters are using electrostatic guns to disinfect cruisers, cells, fire apparatus and equipment.
“It looks like something out of Star Wars,” Police Chief Brian Clark said Tuesday, adding that the gun quickly and evenly coats a surface with a chlorine solution. - PUB DATE: 4/1/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Sun Chronicle
As lawmakers prepare a fourth round of stimulus relief in response to the coronavirus pandemic, a Michigan lawmaker plans to introduce a bill this week calling for a federal income tax holiday for doctors, nurses and first responders.
Rep. Bill Huizenga, a Zeeland Republican, said the proposed tax holiday for three months is modeled after how the federal government excludes income taxes from members of the military serving on the front lines in combat zones. - PUB DATE: 4/1/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Detroit News
VIDEO: A group of first responders in Palmdale expressed their appreciation to those on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic Monday night.
The salute to doctors, nurses and medical staff at Palmdale Regional Medical Center took place around 7:30 p.m., coinciding with the setting sun, according to a post on the Palmdale sheriff’s staton’s Facebook page. - PUB DATE: 4/1/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KTLA-TV WB 5 Los Angeles
The three largest public safety agencies in Franklin County will no longer release the number of personnel who have tested positive for the new coronavirus, the agencies said Monday.
The Columbus Divisions of Fire and Police and the Franklin County sheriff’s office all cited consultations with legal counsel. - PUB DATE: 3/31/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Columbus Dispatch
If you go outside at sunset, listen in the distance and you may hear something you don’t hear too often.
Each night at dusk, bagpipes and drums will echo through neighborhoods across the country.
"You should listen at sunset -- there are pipers and drummers all across the area," Thomas Johnson, a captain with Aurora Fire Department told FOX31. - PUB DATE: 3/31/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KDVR-TV FOX 31 Denver
Sometimes miracles happen because every little thing goes right. And people involved are smart and creative and fearless.
This is the story of a hairstylist, a team of automotive prototype designers and a massive global company that in just a few days went from creating high-tech cars guided by artificial intelligence with the use of robots to old-fashioned built-by-hand assembly the way things were done back in the 1900s. - PUB DATE: 3/31/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: USA Today
In a joint letter, members of Staten Island’s political delegation today called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio to work with relevant pension boards to ensure that first responders and other essential employees who die as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) be guaranteed contractual line-of-duty death benefit and payments. - PUB DATE: 3/31/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: SILive.com
After the recent signing of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act by President Donald J. Trump, International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) President, Fire Chief Gary Ludwig, expressed mixed emotions about the stimulus package.
“While I am pleased that Congress and the President took action to help those who are suffering economically by allocating federal money for hospitals, law enforcement, educational institutions, airlines, and drug companies, I am extremely disappointed that federal funding desperately needed by the American fire and emergency medical services was largely overlooked,” Chief Ludwig said. - PUB DATE: 3/31/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: IAFC.org
The Rowlett Fire Department has a long history of providing innovative solutions to complex issues. Continuing that legacy of care and commitment to our community, the Rowlett Fire Department has implemented a TeleMedic program in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. TeleMedic embraces current technology and allows the online one-on-one video assessment of non-critical patients to reduce the risk of provider- or patient-borne exposure to contagions. - PUB DATE: 3/30/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Rowlett Lakeshore Times
At exactly 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday evening, thousands of New Yorkers in quarantine stood on their porches and near their windows to applaud first responders and health care workers on the frontlines of the coronavirus outbreak.
This powerful act of solidarity, which lasted several minutes, came about after a call on social media to #clapbecausewecare. - PUB DATE: 3/30/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WABC-TV ABC 7 New York
The Laurel County Fire Department has launched a new phone app this week that includes two sections pertaining to COVID-19.
"To our knowledge it's one of the first ones in the area," said Laurel County Fire Chief Terry Wattenbarger. "We're the first emergency service to actually have a mobile app like that. - PUB DATE: 3/30/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Times-Tribune
Chief Diana Matty has heard the cries of doctors across the country: They need ventilators.
As Palm Beach County braces for a potential spike in coronavirus cases, the West Palm Beach fire chief has coordinated efforts with the county’s 10 other fire departments to let hospitals know they are poised to loan ventilators, should the need arise. - PUB DATE: 3/30/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Palm Beach Post
A program conducting home visits with vulnerable patients after they have been checked out of the hospital is doing its best to go online, both for the sake of the paramedics and patients.
Racine’s Mobile Integrated Health program went into a trial phase in the fall of 2018 and was fully implemented in 2019. - PUB DATE: 3/30/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Journal Times
To ensure uninterrupted service during the coronavirus pandemic, 18 fire departments in San Bernardino County have joined under a regional management team, an action usually reserved for fighting large wildfires.
“COVID-19 has the possibility of affecting a significant portion of the fire and EMS workforce,” the San Bernardino County Fire Chiefs Association said Thursday, March 26, in announcing formation of the agencies that will cooperate with the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District Incident Management Team. - PUB DATE: 3/27/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Bernardino County Sun
