Birmingham, Alabama mayor Randall Woodfin was recently hospitalized with pneumonia complications from COVID-19. He is the second member of his family to be hospitalized from the virus this month.
Those closest to the mayor have done their best to share updates on his condition through a string of tweets from the City of Birmingham Twitter account. Woodfin was admitted to the hospital on January 4.
“Birmingham Mayor @randallwoodfin is in stable condition and showing improvement as he remains hospitalized with COVID-19 pneumonia, according to his personal physician,” said one tweet.
“We have often heard how important it is to follow the recommendations of health professionals as those recommendations relate to COVID-19. I am doing that,’’ Mayor Woodfin continued.
While the mayor is recovering well now, not everyone in his family is so lucky. Unfortunately, Woodfin’s grandmother succumbed to the virus in the hospital on January 1, just a few days prior to Woodfin’s own hospitalization.
“My Grandma went home to be with the Lord this morning. It doesn’t matter how much you prepare for the call. It’s still so unsettling, devastating, and shocking all at the same time,’’ Woodfin shared in a tweet the day of her passing,’’ he tweeted.
A Morehouse graduate, Woodfin has always made it a priority to serve his community. While there he studied political science, before eventually obtaining a law degree. Except for his four years at Morehouse, the Birmingham, Alabama native has lived in his hometown all his life.
“From fairly early in my youth, I had been committed to the idea that I wanted to serve Birmingham in the most meaningful way possible,’’ Woodfin shared on his website amid his run for mayor. “I wanted to bring people and businesses and organizations across our city together to make Birmingham the very best it can be — a place where every citizen has opportunities to develop their potential to its fullest. I wanted to be responsible for charting Birmingham’s course into a future of innovation and progress, while beginning to achieve at last the goals of equality and inclusion that are ingrained in our civic character.’’
He has continued to advise his community about his COVID-19 experience, even as he recovers himself.
“I want to encourage people to continue to listen to and to follow the advice of medical experts about this virus,’’ Mayor Woodfin shared in another tweet.
