AT & T, T-Mobile and Verizon have partnered with iHeartMedia to provide thousands of phone chargers to hospitals for COVID-19 patients to charge their phones. According to T-Mobile's press release, these companies will donate about 40,000 cell phone chargers.
T-Mobile said it has already donated 20,000 chargers to hospitals in Seattle, New York City, Los Angeles, New Orleans and San Diego. Verizon said it is supplying thousands of chargers to healthcare providers such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, New Orleans, Detroit and Philadelphia. AT & T said it will donate thousands of chargers to the “hospital in the country's most virus-infected city”.
The donation efforts of wireless operators and iHeartMedia follow the work done by the community to collect COVID-19 patient phone chargers. Patients have to stay away from their families for a long time because they use the phone to stay in touch with their loved ones during hospitalization. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the average duration of hospitalization for surviving COVID-19 patients is 10 to 13 days.