CITY & COUNTY

4/8/2020 10:20pm

Gov. Roy Cooper visited Chapel Hill on Tuesday, Nov. 19 2019 to announce that Well Dot, Inc, a health technology company will base its new operations center in the town and create 400 jobs.

N.C. experiencing a vast increase in unemployment insurance claims due to COVID-19

By Kayleigh Carpenter

North Carolina is ranked second in the country for greatest percent increase in coronavirus-related unemployment insurance claims. Findings from WalletHub revealed that North Carolina saw an increase of over 6,000 percent in the number of unemployment insurance claims the week of March 23, 2020 when compared with that of the same week last year. With new legislation passed by Gov. Roy Cooper and new measures implemented by the Division of Employment Security, the state plans to accommodate the enormous financial strain and the needs of both individuals and employers occurring at this time.

Editors Picks

4/5/2020 11:06pm

A tent stands outside the emergency wing of the UNC Medical Center on Monday, March 23, 2020. The tent was set up to keep coronavirus patients separated from other patients and hospital staff members.

N.C. hospitals are changing operations and procedures, adapting to COVID-19 spread

By Suzannah Claire Perry and Elizabeth Egan

Hospitals across the state of North Carolina are taking steps to ensure that they are ready for the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, expected to come to North Carolina at the end of April. Many hospitals, including UNC Health Care, have limited visiting and nonessential surgeries, but one of the major strains is the lack of personal protective equipment and the long hours now confronting workers. "For the COVID ICU patients, it was just me," Dr. Thomas Bice said. "In addition to the usual thinking about critical care that I had to do, we all had to take on some additional administrative duties, like fielding phone calls or writing notes or writing orders, that are more along the lines of what often the residents take care of."

4/2/2020 10:11pm

Central Prison pictured on March 30, 2020 in Raleigh, N.C. North Carolina prisons are facing challenges with containing COVID-19. 

State prisons prepare for continued COVID-19 spread, as first four cases are detected

By Brittany McGee

The first four cases of COVID-19 in state prisons were announced on Thursday, two days after the North Carolina Department of Public Safety increased efforts to limit the spread of coronavirus in prisons. NCDPS first issued guidance on the virus in mid-March, but a coalition of advocates is calling on the department to do more to protect inmates. “We’ve known for awhile now that our prisons and jails across the state are particularly vulnerable to an outbreak of COVID-19,” Molly Rivera, a spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, said.