President Trump said he canceled the portion of the upcoming Republican National Convention that was scheduled to take place in Jacksonville, Florida, to "protect the American people" from the coronavirus, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana.
- Florida: President Trump canceled the portion of the upcoming Republican National Convention that was scheduled to take place in Jacksonville, Florida, to "protect the American people" from the coronavirus. Trump said the Republican Party's delegates will meet in Charlotte, N.C., to conduct party business and he will deliver a speech accepting the party's formal nomination for president "in a different form" (Swan/Ayesh, Axios, 7/23; New York Times, 7/23).
- Georgia: Georgia's largest school district, Gwinnett County Public Schools, last week announced that its schools will begin the upcoming school year, which will start Aug. 12, with online classes only. The announcement comes after the school district previously said it planned to launch the school year with a combination of in-person and digital instruction. Gwinnett County Public Schools Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks said the district made the decision to switch to all virtual classes because of increasing coronavirus cases in the county (Klar, The Hill, 7/22).
- Louisiana: Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) has asked the federal government to send several hundred health care workers to Louisiana to help mitigate a shortage of clinicians in the state amid rising coronavirus cases. Multiple health care facilities in Louisiana have reported being at capacity and not having enough staff to care for patients, according to The Advocate's Sam Karlin (Karlin, The Advocate, 7/23).