Volunteers, Nurses Needed to Care for Boston’s Homeless Who Have COVID-19
Trade show installers prepare Boston Convention and Exhibition Center Exhibit Hall C to accommodate 500 beds for the homeless who have tested positive for COVID-19. Photo by Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Volunteers, Nurses Needed to Care for Boston’s Homeless Who Have COVID-19
Also in our Coronavirus Thursday Roundup: a COM sophomore gets broadcasting experience—by putting his father on the air from home
If you have a question or comment related to BU and its response to the COVID-19 crisis, on the subject of the move-out, remote learning, retrieving personal belongings, or anything else, please visit Boston University’s special COVID-19 website. Questions are being answered there by specific departments in a timely fashion. Thank you.
—Doug Most, executive editor, BU Today
Quote of the day:
It was weird putting on a mask and walking into the bank.
Stat of the day:
Boston and Beyond News
Volunteers, nurses needed to care for homeless with COVID-19
Boston needs both medical and nonmedical volunteers and is also hiring nurses to serve patients at the 500-bed temporary shelter being set up at the Boston Convention and Exposition Center for members of the city’s homeless community who have tested positive for COVID-19, but have mild or no symptoms and do not require hospitalization. The site, at 415 Summer St. in the Seaport, is being organized in coordination with Ascension Recovery Services and is expected to open for business Thursday, April 9.
Medical volunteers are needed to assist with basic medical care at this medical sheltering facility. Nonmedical volunteers are needed to assist with such tasks as meal delivery, running errands, supervising day-to-day activities, and providing emotional support. Hours requested: 8- or 12-hour shifts, beginning Thursday, April 9. If you are available and interested in volunteering, contact the Medical Reserve Corps at volunteer@bphc.org.
The city is also recruiting nurses with these responsibilities: provide nursing support; conduct client assessments; administer medications, treatments, and overall patient care; and observe and report any changes in a client’s health status. If you are available and interested in employment opportunities, contact: https://www.ascensionrs.com/employment.html or call 304-503-3448.
Numbers still climbing but there is hope, Governor Charlie Baker says
Baker said Wednesday that Massachusetts is still “on the upward slope” of COVID-19 cases and the healthcare system faces serious stresses immediately ahead. But in his daily update, he also held out some hope that the steps that officials have taken to blunt the impact of the epidemic are working. “The most important thing people need to do here is to recognize and understand that they need to stay away to the fullest extent possible from other people,” he said. He also discussed state guidelines for healthcare providers on how to decide who gets a ventilator if supplies run short, as well as increased liability protections for providers.
Boston Pops cancels spring season, July 4 and Tanglewood up in air
The Boston Pops has canceled its spring season, set for May 6 to June 13 at Symphony Hall, because of COVID-19 concerns. The season was to have celebrated the 25th anniversary of Keith Lockhart (Hon.’04) as Pops conductor. The last seven weeks of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) season, March 19 to May 2, were already canceled. No decisions have yet been announced about the fate of the annual July 4 Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular on the Esplanade or the summer season at Tanglewood. The BSO said those decisions would come mid-May. “The cancellation of the 2020 Boston Pops season represents a sad day for all of us who cherish and work for this beloved institution,” BSO president and CEO Mark Volpe said Wednesday. “As one of Boston’s most treasured cultural experiences, the Boston Pops, under the inimitable leadership of Keith Lockhart, looks forward to a brighter time when it can bring the joy and inspiration of its music-making back into the lives of music lovers from our wonderful city of Boston and visitors from far and wide.”
BU News
It’s not an internship, it’s chores
Nick Mason (COM’22) is getting some invaluable hands-on broadcasting experience while sheltering at home during the coronavirus pandemic. Every weekday, he gets up early to set up for a live home broadcast by his father, CBS This Morning anchor Anthony Mason. As detailed in a Los Angeles Times article about TV newspeople broadcasting from home, Nick adjusts the camera and other equipment that allow his father to go on the air from their Manhattan home.
And now for some home cooking…
For all of us holed up at home during the pandemic, Joan Salge Blake (Sargent’84, Wheelock’16), a Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences clinical professor, has a piece on 12 Family Meals Using Your Pantry Staples on US News & World Report’s Wellness site. Personally, we’re most interested in the burrito bowl with shrimp or the California tuna avocado burgers, but YMMV.
US & Global News
2020 presidential election still has many unknowns
The decision of US Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) on Wednesday to drop out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination makes clear that the race will be between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. But the coronavirus crisis means many other questions remain, from how voters will judge the government’s response to the crisis to how voting will proceed in this era of social distancing and quarantines.
Latest count of coronavirus cases
United States, 1,495,051; Massachusetts, 16,790.
Distraction of the day
The theater community continues to be hard-hit by the pandemic, as its basic goal is the opposite of social distancing. But tonight you can take in a key work by one of Boston’s—and BU’s—finest playwrights without leaving your living room. Melinda Lopez’s solo play, Mala, airs tonight at 10 on WGBH (Channel 2). Lopez (GRS’00), a College of Arts & Sciences adjunct assistant professor of playwriting, also performs in Mala, which was inspired by caring for her mother during the last year of her life. It premiered in 2016 at ArtsEmerson, and the version you’ll see tonight dates from a 2018 Huntington Theatre Company production directed by David Dower. Beginning Friday, the show will be available for streaming for the rest of the month at www.wgbh.org/mala.
Find BU Today’s latest coverage of the pandemic here. The University’s hotline for faculty, staff, students, and visiting scholars to call for referral of their virus-related medical concerns is 617-358-4990.