VIDEO: The staff at the Tybee Island Fire Department have been hard at work since Wednesday making masks for those that need them most. The dedicated team is one of several groups working to fill the nationwide mask shortage triggered by frightened Americans concerned about their respiratory health amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
- PUB DATE: 3/27/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WSAV-TV NBC/CW+ 3 Savannah

With 16% of its workers in self-isolation due to exposure to the coronavirus, New Orleans Emergency Medical Services will run ambulances to situations that are not life-threatening staffed solely with emergency medical technicians and not the more highly trained paramedics who are now required to be on board.
- PUB DATE: 3/27/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NOLA.com

The Senate approved more than $163 billion designated to assist local fire and EMS departments as part of an economic stimulus package to safeguard the U.S. economy and help the nation respond effectively to the 2019 novel coronavirus and its resulting illness, COVID-19. The House is expected to pass the $2 trillion stimulus bill on Friday.
- PUB DATE: 3/27/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: IAFC.org

Calls to New York City’s 911 medical services hit their highest levels since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to emergency workers’ unions, stretching staffs that have already seen their own ranks thinned by coronavirus infections. Medical emergency calls are up 40% to about 6,500 a day, according to Oren Barzilay, president of Local 2507, a union that represents emergency medical technicians, paramedics, fire inspectors and dispatchers.
- PUB DATE: 3/27/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Bloomberg

Firefighters in East Pierce County are working Thursday afternoon to rescue a woman who plunged at Victor Falls. Authorities said a 19-year-old girl was climbing down to the embankment at the bottom of Victor Falls. She was using a rope, fell about 50 feet and injured her leg, but she did not go over the falls.
- PUB DATE: 3/27/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KOMO-TV ABC 4 Seattle