‘Everyone is afraid’: Birmingham hospitals plead for help to slow COVID surge
Updated Dec 18, 2020;
Posted Dec 18, 2020
Nurses care for a patient in a COVID-19 intensive care unit at UAB Hospital in Birmingham, Ala. (Photo by Amanda Chambers provided by UAB)
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Just as Alabama’s critical health care workers are lining up to receive the first doses of a coronavirus vaccine, they’re being slammed with record numbers of COVID-19 patients and a jarring realization that the situation is likely to get worse in the coming days.
Doctors and administrators from four Birmingham-area hospitals said at an online press conference Friday morning that their systems are being strained by the increasing numbers of COVID patients and pleaded with the public to take precautions over the Christmas holiday.
Ascension St. Vincent’s in Jacksonville began administering the COVID-19 vaccine to its frontline health care staff Thursday as shipments continue to make their way to Northeast Florida hospitals.
Among the first recipients was Estrellita Redmon, an internal medicine physician and chief medical officer of Ascension Medical Group for Ascension Florida and Gulf Coast. Caregivers continue to lead by example and I encourage everyone in the communities we serve to get vaccinated when it’s made available to you, Redmon said.
She particularly encourages high-risk, marginalized individuals and people of color to get the vaccine because they been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.
Ascension St. Vincentâs doctor to get one of first COVID vaccinations
Frontline workers to get vaccine first in Alabama By Alan Collins | December 14, 2020 at 7:06 PM CST - Updated December 14 at 7:06 PM
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - On Tuesday or Wednesday of this week, the first Alabama healthcare workers should be getting the vaccine to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
On Monday, three Alabama hospitals received some doses of the vaccine produced by Pfizer.
Itâs a big day and a lot of people are excited to be the first to get the COVID-19 vaccination, but they are even more excited to see what could be - what has been said to be - the end of the beginning of this infectious disease.