Gene Marrano
Updated weekly numbers for the Near Southwest Region, which includes Carilion, Centra, LewisGale, Sovah, and the Salem VA Medical Center as of today: there are 143 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, 36 ICU patients and 8 people on ventilators. Last week 130 patients were hospitalized for COVID in the near Southwest Region. At the peak in January as many as 450 were in the hospital at one time fighting the coronavirus
WFIR’s Greg Roberts reports that former Radford High School and West Virginia standout basketball player Darious Nichols will be the new head basketball coach for the Radford University Highlanders; succeeding Mike Jones, who left for UNC-Greensboro. Nichols will be announced at a 2-pm news conference according to Roberts. Nichols had been an assistant coach at Florida.
Dr. Cynthia Morrow/VDH-VT photo
There are mass vaccination clinics open to all adults through Thursday at the Berglund Center – and no worries about any supply shortage says Dr. Cynthia Morrow, director for the Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts. In fact Morrow reiterated today that with demand lessening in the Roanoke Valley those mass vaccination events could end soon – replaced by smaller, focused clinics in more rural parts of the health district.
The Roanoke Symphony Orchestra returns with an outdoor free concert on May 8 – tomorrow Blue Ridge Marathon runners can see and hear the RSO’s music director with a very special band, as they head towards the finish line. WFIR’s Gene Marrano spoke with music director and conductor David Stewart Wiley this week – and here is a “Longer Listen.”
There are already second-generation troops serving in Afghanistan – and some soldiers who weren’t even born yet when September 11 happened on American soil. Now the President says its time to come home. Virginia’s junior U.S. Senator weighed in yesterday, as WFIR’s Gene Marrano reports: