WCBI News At 6

WCBI News At 6

Show open good evening and thank you for joining us, i'm cash matlock.

The mississippi department of health has reported 60 new cases of covid-19 this morning, including several northeast mississippi.

Four new cases were reported in lowndes county.

Clay county reported its first case of the coronavirus.

Itawamba county has reported three cases.

Lafayette county has reported one new case.

The county's total is now at two cases of covid-19.

Monroe county has also reported another case of the virus.

The county's total is now at two cases of covid-19.

The new positive results brings the state total to 140.

One death has been reported so far in mississippi.

Msdh said with more testing taking place across the state by the health department and private labs it is seeing a jump in cases.

We've got the full list of affected counties on our website, wcbi dot com.

An emergency city council meeting was held earlier today in columbus.

Mayor robert smith along with members of the city council have initiated a general curfew beginning tonight at 10pm and lasting until 6am except for áessentialá travel by those over the age of 18.

In addition to that, all restaurants with the city limits of columbus will only be allowed to serve food using drive-through, curbside, or delivery methods.

Businesses employing ten or more people are asked to adhere to cdc guidelines as well as guidelines from the mississippi department of health.

Smith says the orders were put into place after learning of the 4 newly confirmed coronavirus cases in lowndes county.

"we found out last night and also this morning i was informed that we had four cases here in lowndes county where people had tested positive.

Also, i have been in contact with several mayors across the state of mississippi, so what we did this morning in our special meeting is because we're concerned about the health, safety, and welfare of all of our citizens within the city of columbus."

Smith says the current order will last until further notice.

For a full list of businesses affected, visit our website at wcbi dot com.

The city of bruce also announces a general curfew will soon go into effect.

Mayor rudy pope says a the curfew will go into place on monday, march 23 from 8 p.m.

Until 5 a.m.

The curfew is until further notice.

Tupelo's mayor has updated an executive order that now prohibits public gatherings of 50 or more people.

That action came after a public auction attracted hundreds of people to tupelo furniture market the action was stopped moments after the executive order was issued tupelo mayor jason shelton has also ordered all playgrounds closed at city parks the mayor could issue more executive orders monday in efforts to stop the spread of the corona virus first look rain will return to the area sunday with showers lingering through much of the day.

More rain and perhaps some storms will move in for monday and tuesday before we catch a break mid- week.

Temperatures will climb into the 70s and 80s through the week.

Saturday night: skies will remain overcast tonight with temperatures falling into the upper 40s to near 50.

A few showers are possible before midnight, but rain will become more likely between 12am and 7am.

Sunday: widespread rain showers and a couple of rumbles of thunder will persist through the day.

Organized severe weather remains unlikely, but some areas could see a quick heavy downpour and some gusty vice president mike pence says coronavirus testing is being ramped up nationwide, with more than 195,000 tests administered so far.

He said more than 19,000 have tested positive so far.

Cbs news correspondent michael george has the latest from new york where president trump declared a disaster for the state.

President trump has approved a 'disaster'' declaration for new york state.

''this is the first time in our nation's history that a president has used the stafford act to declare a major disaster in response to a public health crisis.'' he designation opens the way for billions of dollars in emergency federal aid to be sent to one of the states hardest hit by the coronavirus.??pre sident trump said other parts of the country, such as california, may also receive disaster aid.

New york, california, illinois, connecticut and oregon are all taking measures to restrict residents' movements outside their homes.

The nation's top infectious disease expert says mitigation efforts are working, but it's hard to say how well.

''we know we are clearly having an effect but we can't quantitate it accurately for you now...'' on capitol hill, senators are spending the weekend trying to finalize details of a trillion dollar economic stimulation package.

The bi-partisan bill includes relief for small businesses, loans to impacted industries, and direct cash payments to individuals, based on income and family size.

Joanne imwalle is a nurse at a hospital near sacramento..she goes into the rooms of patients who have infectious diseases such as the coronavirus.

We're coming in and taking care of patients that have something that's infectious that we could actually get and potentially die from."

Healthcare workers are facing a critical shortage of masks.

Vice president pence, who is leading the white house task force, says masks are being prioritized to areas in greatest need.

He urged companies and dentists to donate masks to hospitals.

Michael george/cbs news/new york vice president pence says he and his wife will be tested for the coronavirus after a staff member tested positive.

Governor tate reeves announces efforts to provide unemployment benefits to help mississippi workers and their families impacted by the covid-19 outbreak.

Early today, reeves signed an executive order instructing the mississippi department of employment security to expedite payments to unemployed mississippians and relax collection requirements on employers.

The governor is also waiving the one-week waiting period to receive unemployment benefits for all claims filed from march 8 to june 27 and suspending all work search requirements that normally must be met to receive benefits.

All collection activities, such as enrollment of liens and tax garnishments, have also been suspended to provide mdes and employers some flexibility during the difficult time.

A major american manufacturing company temporarily closes it's doors.

Cooper tire and rubber company announces it will shutdown it's facilities in the u.s. and mexico.

The company says this is to help protect the health and safety of employees as well as respond to the effect on market demand from the coronavirus.

The closing process will begin today and will continue on a rolling basis.

All plants are expected to remain closed for two to three weeks.

The company is discussing plans for it's europe locations.

Cooper's plants in china reopened several weeks ago and have continued to ramp up production.

Small businesses across the country are feeling the effects as the coronavirus spreads.

Hair salons and barbershops depend on their clients to keep their doors open and support their livelihood.

Places like salon 3 say loyal clients have begun canceling their standing appointments.

That's why the stylist and barbers are taking extra precautions in light of covid-19.

They're wiping down their stations after every customer.

" we are in such close contact with people you know.

I'm just literally standing on top of her touching her hair.

We have the sign at the door to call us when they get here.

If we aren't finished with who we are doing they wait in the car and we will motion for them or text them to come on in."

Lancaster says salon 3 will be closed until march 26th.

Governor tate reeves has ordered mississippi schools to close until april 17th.

For some students, they depend on schools for daily meals.

That's why many schools are coming together to ensure that families have meals until class is back in session.

Our deandria turner is in oxford and has more on the story.

Prepping sandwiches putting together to-lunches and making sure everyone gets fed the seats of the cafeteria at may be empty, but the kitchen isn't.

, "it feels great to help parents that can't afford to give their children breakfast or lunch or just need a meal period."

Cafeteria workers or lunch ladies, as they are sometimes called like cindy mcglown gets to work around 6 a-m and doesn't leave until 2:30 in the afternoon.

"we gotta do what we gotta do to feed the kids," the oxford school district has six locations set up around the community for kids and their parents to grab a lunch superintendent brian harvey says this was an opportunity to extend their summer meals program "we've got students who are out of school.

We already had the staffing available and we saw this just as a natural extension of where we are with this virus.

The first day they gave away more than 700 meals.

He believes that as word gets out they will be able to help more families "we're looking at, do we have these locations in the right spot?

Do we need to move them around?

Do we need to add, and our staff is ready to do whatever is necessary."

What's necessary to keep the community together packing one meal at a time.

"that's our job.

We love and i'm glad to be here to do it" osd will provide free meals on weekdays from 9 a.m.

- 12 p.m.

For all children under the age of 18.

Adults can also purchase meals for $2 at these locations.

Imagine waking up one day and not having anything to eat and on top of that -- a pandemic happening across the world.

Our savannah gaido has more on a special food drive.

The community benefit committee held a grocery drive thru at state line baptist church saturday morning.

"we are sharing the love of jesus with people through a medium of of food.

The bible teaches us a person said i was hungry and you gave me meat so we want to be honoring our lord jesus christ by sharing food."

"people in the community that are in need of food have waited in line to get grocery bags full of canned goods and other items that are needed during this time."

Items in the bags have a variety of foods from cereal and eggs to potatoes and fruit.

"we've reached as many as 375 to 400 families, roughly in the three counties, around a thousand people" all of this has been able to happen because of one special donor.

"we do this through the mississippi food network which is our sponsor.

We buy the food from them at a low cost and then we distribute it to whoever qualifies."

The church gives food away every 3rd saturday.

"it means a whole lot to us, i mean this is something that god has put on us to do, so we're here to help the community and we want for whoever needs it to come get it."

Even though this a tough time -- the church is looking up.

"it's an encouragement, were here to encourage people.

There's a lot of negative around but when they come here they get positive reinforcement."

"we're just happy to share the love of jesus."

Reporting in columbus, savannah gaido, wcbi news.

A food pantry in nettleton is stepping up to help fulfill needs in the community.

More on this story when we come back.

The coronaviru crisis is prompting are food banks to extend in hand.

In nettleton the local food pantry there was giving out food to families in need... wcbi's tyler hull was there and as the story.

Empty shelves in grocery stores is leaving many families without.

The faith food pantry is giving away over fifty-thousand pounds of food.they are making sure families stay ready during these trying times... "we're giving food to people, we'll probably give out food to close to 800 families" for some families the virus has hit them hard financially and long said that is where the pantry comes in to help... "we give out every month, every third saturday of every month, and it's always important, but it's particularly important now because a lot of people have lost their jobs.

We're getting a lot of people who were doing fine last wee now they don't have a job they don't have food so we're able to give them food" long said that even though some of their regular volunteers couldn't show, they still had a great turnout... "it's great a lot of our regulars weren't able to come a lot of them old and have health problems or they have spousal health problems so they weren't able to come and people just turned out" reporting in nettleton tyler hull wcbi news long also said they had over a hundred volunteers show up.

Rain will return to the area sunday with showers lingering through much of the day.

More rain and perhaps some storms will move in for monday and tuesday before we catch a break mid- week.

Temperatures will climb into the 70s and 80s through the week.

Saturday night: skies will remain overcast tonight with temperatures falling into the upper 40s to near 50.

A few showers are possible before midnight, but rain will become more likely between 12am and 7am.

Sunday: widespread rain showers and a couple of rumbles of thunder will persist through the day.

Organized severe weather remains unlikely, but some areas could see a quick heavy downpour and some gusty winds.

The best rain chances will be through midday, as it looks like we'll catch a little bit of a break in the evening.

Winds will switch from the northeast to the southeast through the day from 5 to 10 mph.

Sunday night: more rain will move into the area after sunset and storms will be possible after midnight.

Storm activity won't be widespread, but you may hear a couple of rumbles of thunder before sunrise on monday morning.

Lows will be in the mid 50s.

Monday-tuesday: showers and a few storms are likely as you start your day on monday.

The heaviest activity will exit the area by lunchtime, leaving us with light showers for the rest of the day.

Another round of showers and storms will move in through the afternoon and evening on tuesday.

This round will deliver more heavy rain and the potential for some gusty winds with some storms. early indications are that a couple of tuesday evening's storms could be on the stronger side.

We'll continue to monitor and update the forecast as new information becomes available.

High temperatures on monday will be near 70 and into the upper 70s on coming up..

We say good bye to a country music legend.

More on the life and music of kenny rogers when we come one of the world's most iconic performers has passed away.

Kenny rogers' career spanned decades and multiple genres.

The grammy-award winning entertainer died friday evening from natural causes at the age of 81.

Michael george takes a look back at his life.

Nats&from one of his songs& kenny rogers entertained millions during his nearly six-decade career.

He topped the pop and country music charts 24 times, while racking up numerous awards, including 3 grammys.

The son of an alcoholic carpenter and a nursing assistant&he grew up in houston's projects.

Rogers decided to become a performer after attending a ray charles concert when he was 12.

The singer formed a doo-wop band while still in high school.

And launched his professional career in a jazz trio in the late 50s&.

He transitioned to folk music with the new christie minstrels.

Nats&from ruby&.

And fronted "the first edition" before launching a solo career& nats..you picked a fine time to leave me lucille& through the years&rogers used his songs to tell stories.

Nats..lady&.

And&he found joy collaborating with longtime friends lionel richie and &nats&islands in the stream&.

Dolly parton, who he once described as a "soulmate."

Nats&from the gambler& rogers also starred in five tv movies based on his hit song "the gambler" later in life, he defended the plastic surgery that radically altered his appearance.

It's one of those things where you look at yourself, could i be better if i did this or that.

Rumors swirled about his health in 2014 after he posted a photo on instagram following skin cancer surgery.

About a year later rogers announced a two-year farewell concert tour, so he could spend time with his young twin sons.

I will miss you dearly, but i have to go be with my boys.

Rogers ended his final tour four months early, citing "health challenges."

I've accomplished a lot more than i ever thought i would and probably ever should have&but it's really been a great career and i've had a great life.

Michael george, cbs news.

Kenny rogers was by now, you're probably all stocked up on toilet paper... but how do you plan on making it last?

We've got the answer, coming up next, stay with us.

A new website has been designed to help with the toilet paper crisis.

The site reports its average user has 500 percent more toilet paper than they need during quarantine.

The website is simple to use.

First, go to how much toilet paper- dot-com.

Then users enter how many rolls of toilet paper they have and how many times they visit the bathroom.

The simple calculator will tell you how much toilet paper you need to survive the pandemic.

More than two million people have already used the how much toilet paper website.

The designers hope it will reduce the toilet paper shortage around the world.