US wireless carriers are delivering phone chargers to hospitals for COVID-19 patients

AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon have all partnered with iHeartMedia to deliver thousands of phone chargers to hospitals so that COVID-19 patients can charge their phones. The companies will donate nearly 40,000 phone chargers, according to T-Mobile’s press release.

T-Mobile says it has already donated 20,000 chargers to hospitals in Seattle, New York City, Los Angeles, New Orleans and San Diego. Verizon says it’s providing thousands of chargers to healthcare providers in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, New Orleans, Detroit and Philadelphia, and more. AT&T says it will donate thousands of chargers to “hospitals in cities across the country that have been hit the hardest by the virus.”

The donation efforts by the wireless carriers and iHeartMedia follow work done by local communities to collect phone chargers for patients with COVID-19. Patients may rely on their phones to stay in touch with loved ones during hospital stays, which can require patients to be away from their families for a long time. The median length of hospitalization for surviving COVID-19 patients is 10 to 13 days, according to the Centers for Disease Control.