WCBI News at Ten - 04/02/2020

WCBI News at Ten - 04/02/2020

Thanks for staying up with us tonight..

The situation surrounding the coronavirus changes everyday, and so do state and local responses it seems. to help sort through it all, courtney ann jackson had a few questions for governor tate reeves..

We've seen city and counties add their versions of shelter in place or stay at home orders-some before and some after that signature from the governor wednesday.

"many of the local orders that are being put in place are very similar to the executive order that i signed yesterday."

So, why are they needed.

I asked mississippi college school of law professor matt steffey.

"public health experts would tell us that these additional layers of orders at the county or usually the municipal level help reinforce the overall message."

But maybe you live in a city that says you'll have a curfew in place and there's not one statewide?

Reeves says those cities can do that.

"it's ok for them to go a little bit further or try to take additional steps or be more specific in their order if that's what they think their citizens need."

Steffey says to think of it in this way.

"it's a floor, not a ceiling.

This is the minimum level of stay at home that's been required by law and that localities are free to add to that."

The one catch...local leaders can't have a more narrow definition of essential businesses than the governor's executive order.

So the bare minimum-only essential businesses open; travel for work, grocery store, pharmacy or medical needs; and recreation and amusement spaces being closed-that all applies statewide.

But you are expected to follow any additional guidelines your city or county adds to that.

"if you have to think about you ought to do something or not as an individual, the answer is probably no you probably shouldn't do it."

Also---note that you do not need any document to go out and take care of essential needs like grocery shopping or work.

Top take gfx off top local nursing homes and long term care facilities want you to know that they are using the best practices to make sure their residents and staff stay safe.

Here's what this means for at least one area nursing home: every door to the building is locked.

Everyone, including staff, must enter through a locked front entrance.

All employees must answer 13 specific questions about their health and habits at the beginning of each shift.

All employees and vendors are required to have their temperature taken before entering the building.

Health care workers also take the temperatures of their residents once a shift.

Family members are not allowed inside to visit.

And residents must remain in their rooms to maintain social distance.

These precautions are recommended by the cdc and the mississippi health department.

School will be back in session in alabama on monday, but don't expect to see students in the classrooms. governor kay ivy issued an order closing all public and private school buildings, leaving school districts to come up with alternative methods for finishing the year.

Quentin smith speaks with school leaders in lamar county and tells us what's next for their students.

This is how teachers and students in the lamar county school district are accustomed to having class... the teacher is at the front of the room... presenting their daily lesson plan.

But covid-19 is changing that.

South lamar high school principal lisa wright says they've had to come up with alternative measures to finish out the school year... "our plan that we have in place is to do some online classes for those who have the internet capabilities.

Our other students who do not have internet capabilities will do what we call correspondents courses where they will pick up packets from the school on monday to complete.

This is just to make sure there's not a slide in proficiency to what the student have already learned."

School leaders say they're relying on the parents during this time to help ensure the students are staying on top of their work... "we're not saying that they need to do five hours a day, but if you'll just touch on it a little bit during the day, it'll help prevent that slide of proficiency that we are trying to prevent from happening since the students will be out for so long."

All of the work will be turned in by may 6th, but not all of the material will be graded.

Seniors who are on track to graduate won't have to complete any of the work.

However, for those who may be struggling in their classes, there's still time to make improvements.

"those students who, at the end of the third nine weeks had a failing grade, are being given opportunities to bring that grade up."

Wright says teachers will communicate with students regularly either by email or phone.

Though this was a quick transition... district leaders believe this is the best plan to help keep students on the right track... "our kids are not going to miss a beat in their academic career from this.

We have next year to look at what standards may need to be hit on a reviewed, and so we'll take it from there."

Reporting in lamar county, alabama.

Quentin smith, wcbi news.

Packets go out monday april 6th from 8 am to 2 pm.

The district will send a message to all parents letting them know where they can be picked up..

Anyone who is unable to pick up the packets during those times, should contact their child's school.

First look stinger summary: a few showers are possible friday & saturday but no significant moisture is expected.

Temperatures will continue to moderate back into the mid to upper 70s through the weekend.

No strong or severe weather is currently expected during the next week.

Thursday night: increasing clouds.

Lows in the mid to upper 40s.

Friday: sun & clouds.

Just a slight chance of a shower.

Highs in the mid 70s.

Lows in the 50s friday night.

Summary: a few showers are possible friday & saturday but no significant moisture is expected.

Temperatures will continue to moderate back into the mid to if you were looking to get supplies for that home improvement project in columbus today, you may have hit a roadblock.

The columbus lowe's is closed.

Cleaning crews were called in after mayor robert smith shut it down because an employee tested positive for covid- 19 earlier this week.

Bobby martinez has more from the mayor and employees who say something should have been done sooner.

"the store is now closed."

"they put everybody at risk."

An empty parking lot was the site for lowe's customers on thursday.

The popular home improvement store was forced to close up shop wednesday night after an employee tested positive for the virus.

Columbus mayor robert smith says his office started receiving calls claiming that store supervisors were trying to keep the positive covid-19 test under wraps.

"an anonymous person called to my office and talked to my secretary and asked her if she would pass this word on to me that a person was tested positive for the coronavirus and that the supervisor hadn't passed it on to the employees."

Smith notified columbus police.

He says a store manager admitted to an officer that an employee did test positive tuesday.

Employees, that wanted to remain anonymous, reached out to wcbi.

They say their co-worker told other employees that she had the virus.

They believe management ignored the warning signs.

Annonyous employee 1 sot she got a text message from the lady herself and she was telling her you know that she had the corona she had a corona and she's going to be out for a while annonyous employee 2 sot it was something that i felt that could've been prevented because you know once i got out to the employees that this employee did have it she was showing symptoms weeks now and she stopped coming to work and saw the word made it back to the management and they just completely deny the rumor.

Smith says lowe's must clean the store, according to cdc guidelines.

"i agree that if they follow through with it what they agreed to they need to open back up tomorrow morning at regular time which is at 6 o'clock."

In a statement from lowe's... they say the store has been extensively cleaned per cdc guidelines and will reopen friday at 6 a.m.

They will also be closing nightly at 7 pm to give employees time to thoroughly clean the store.

You can read their full statement on our website..

Wcbi.com stinger wx open summary: a few showers are possible friday & saturday but no significant moisture is expected.

Temperatures will continue to moderate back into the mid to upper 70s through the weekend.

No strong or severe weather is currently expected during the next week.

Thursday night: increasing summary: a few showers are possible friday & saturday but no significant moisture is expected.

Temperatures will continue to moderate back into the mid to upper 70s through the weekend.

No strong or severe weather is currently expected during the next week.

Thursday night: increasing clouds.

Lows in the mid to upper 40s.

Friday: sun & clouds.

Just a slight chance of a shower.

Highs in the mid 70s.

Lows in the 50s friday night.

Saturday: partly to mostly cloudy with a 20% chance of a few showers.

Most locations should stay dry.

Highs top out mainly in the mid 70s.

Sunday: partly cloudy.

Warm.

Highs near 80.

Monday & tuesday: partly to mostly cloudy.

A 50% chance of showers and storms both days.

Highs in the upper 70s to around 80.

Wednesday: partly cloudy.

A 40% chance of showers and storms. highs in the low to mid 80s.

Follow @wcbiweather on facebook, twitter, instagram, and on wx open summary: a few showers are possible friday & saturday but no significant moisture is expected.

Temperatures will continue to moderate back into the mid to upper 70s through the weekend.

No strong or severe weather is currently expected during the next week.

Thursday night: increasing clouds.

Lows in the mid to upper 40s.

Friday: sun & clouds.

Just a slight chance of a shower.

Highs in the mid 70s.

Lows in the 50s friday night.

Saturday: partly to mostly cloudy with a 20% chance of a few showers.

Most locations should stay dry.

Highs top out mainly in the mid 70s.

Sunday: partly cloudy.

Warm.

Highs near 80.

Monday & tuesday: partly to mostly cloudy.

A 50% chance of showers and storms both days.

Highs in the upper 70s to around 80.

Wednesday: partly cloudy.

A 40% chance of showers and storms. highs in the low to mid 80s.

Follow @wcbiweather on facebook, twitter, instagram, and on the wcbi news app stinger briging useful equipment back to life.

Up next, how researchers at mississipi state are helping out during the coronavirus outbreak take it's spring time and we want to enjoy the outdoors as much as we can however, allergies can make it challenging.

We learn about treatment options in tonights health talk with baptist.

What are some treatments for spring allergies?

The best way to stay allergy free is to avoid pollen as much as possible.

Take these measures to keep pollen out of your home: keep your windows and outside doors closed.

Do not use window or attic fans during pollen season if possible.

Roll up your car windows when driving.

Dry clothing and bedding in the dryer.

Don't hang clothes outside.

Pets can bring pollen in your home.

Don't allow pers that spend time outdoors in your bedroom.

We treat spring allergies with a number of over the counter and prescription drugs.

Over the counter allergy drugs are effective for many people and include nasal steroid sprays, which reduce inflammation.

Antihistamines reduce sneezing, sniffling and itching by lowering the amount of histamine in the body.

Over the counter antihistamines can make you feel sleepy, but non- drowsy formulas are now available.

Decongestants clear mucus out of nasal passages to relieve congestion and swelling.

Decongestant nasal sprays relieve congestion and may clear clogged nasal passages faster take vo off top mississippi state university are adding power to the fight against covid-19.

Researchers are converting 551 ventilator units from battery power to ac power.

Normally, the ventilators have a 2 day lifespan on battery power.

Once converted, they'll be able to run full time without changing batteries.

Lab manager david wallace sees this is as an opportunity to provide real help.

"i think this is a very fantastic opportunity.

I have a sister who's a nurse who's battling this every day up in tennessee.

By being able to do this, it gives me a feeling that oh i can help people out there as well.

With my students coming in, it gives them an opportunity to really give back to the community and work well with them.

Hopefully this right here will save the lives of some people in mississippi.

Keep us going.

It's a strong battle that we have coming forward and this is just a small step to help defeat it."

Wallace expects the ventilators to be ready sunday.

Stinger when we come back - our sports crew reminisces with an old friend, and find out a little about her ánewá job..

Spx open "tom eble, courtney rob chris bolton joined today by former wcbi reporter and mississippi state women's basketball player and now assistant coach blair shafer.

You've so many titles now.

Oh, what is the latest one?

I was gonna say i'm sure she officially goes by former w cbi reporter.

If you look back in the time machine, this was a week ago, three years ago, two years ago, you probably had some of the biggest, best, craziest days of your life with the ncaa tournament.

Just a real quick question through this quarantine time.

How many times have you youtube old memories?

Well, i don't necessarily youtube it.

We use synergy since you know i'm on the staff now.

So i have access to that.

So i have with the old games a lot just because i think that sort of fun.

When that's all you've known your whole life.

So it usually pops up on my facebook first.

So that reminds me of what happened one year ago, through 10 years ago.

And then i'll be like, oh, yeah, that was a great game.

So i'll go look it up and post it on either instagram, facebook, twitter, and it's weird.

And it's kind of sad, because i was really excited to see like, what our team was here.

When we went to we were going to go to the ncaa tournament, you know, that's what you play for all year.

And so when you play so hard, and so good to potentially get a really good seed for the youth of your team, and then like this happens, it's kind of hard, but yeah, you know, i have seen a lot of stuff from the past few years, and the past few weeks as we've been quarantined.

Blair you you mentioned a lot of duties that you've been doing coaching lately, with everything changing.

What have you enjoyed the most about being a coach being in a circle now, i've been a part of the program, but i was a player.

So i'm what i listen for, and i'm like when i go out and play a game and we're inhuddle is in timeout, i'm listening for like my next, like instruction for plays and stuff.

And so i'm not thinking about our whole team or while tear macallan is six, seven, like we need to be getting her the ball on the right block because of xy and z.

Like i'm just listening to my part, what i need to do is to play whatever so now that i'm on the other side, i'm able to fully realize how much is going on all the time during games, um, you're trying to put every single person on your team in the best position to be successful, which i am, you know, i'm used to that when i played with row row was a lefty, i was a righty, so we had to put each other on the right side of the floor where when we grow, we could use our strong hands.

So now, on the other side, i'm watching like my dad and coach harris and coach jackson and lavato just brainstorm and huddle, but it's at a quick pace on like, where certain people should be on the floor and why and he has plays already in his mind ready for that and he can draw it up on the board within like five seconds.

And so for me i'm just like trying to engage 24 seven to try and learn how to do that.

They're going back to this being the one me three years since morgan hit the shot against uconn.

What is maybe a spark about either that game going up into the game or after the game, that is something that you'll always remember or something that hasn't really been known?

First of all, i'll go through the whole shot aspect.

So that was that game was over time and regulation, morgan went against it, gabby williams to drive it.

So she went all the way to the rim, and gabby blocked it into the stands.

And so morgan had already gone.

Gabby in that game one on one.

And so this was her second time around to go up against her and since she went all the way to the rim the first time she felt that gabby was gonna think she was going to try and drive it again because morgan is so quick.

And so morgan has a really quick first step, so, in morgan's mind, she was thinking, okay, she thinks i'm going to drive it again, i'm going to give her a quick hesitation, quick first two steps as if i'm going to the rim and pull up.

And so she was able to do that.

And that's how she created that separation where she could at least get off the shot.

So that's what was going on in morgan's mind, something that i'll never forget.

And y'all i'm telling you, i see it every time they post it on espn.

As soon as morgan hits the shot, me and dominic go running to morgan and dominic trips, me and i fall on the floor on my butt.

And i in that, like, two second process, i had to either tell myself, i'm going to sit right here.

And we're going to acknowledge the fact that i just fell in front of these thousands of people in this arena.

And not that this will be on game fill, or ever or i can get right back up and be like, you know what, it's fine.

We're just all really excited.

So i took option two, and i got right back up, but every time they replay the take vo off top rules limiting social gatherings inspire some area residents to get creative to honor a friend and pay respects to his family..

Local businessman and chairman of the columbus redevelopment authority john acker passed away tuesday.

Tonight a group of his friends and colleagues gathered at heritage academy and drove to the acker home on columbus' northside to show support for his family.

Drivers and passegers also held signs and gave words of encouragement to the family.

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