12 News Adapts Newsroom to Coronavirus

The Coronavirus has Americans adjusting to a new way of life. Streets are empty. Restaurants are closed. And many Americans are working from home.

In the news business, the show must go on. But that doesn’t mean it’s immune the world around it.

Katie Wilcox is an Executive Producer at 12 News, the NBC Affiliate in Phoenix. She came into contact with someone who later contracted the virus.

“I went out to dinner with a woman who, a couple of days later, found that she tested positive for COVID-19,” Wilcox said.

Wilcox says that she had to jump through many hoops to even get a Coronavirus test. But unlike many Americans, she actually got one.

“People with 103 degree fevers say they can’t get a test," Wilcox said. "I think there’s a possibility my role as a journalist made it more likely that I got a test, honestly.”

Wilcox ultimately tested negative, and recently returned to work at 12 News. To a newsroom that looks and feels drastically different than just over a week ago.

Since then, news desk staffers like Seth Pines are asking many reporters to work from home, something that makes teamwork that much more important.

“The Newsroom is definitely a lot smaller," Pines said. "You just have to really enhance communication.”

For Wilcox, she’s back in the newsroom. But for many other Americans, they are still waiting to be tested.

“The emergency room doctor put it to us this way. If we could test a million people every single day, it would still take a full year for us to test everyone in the United States.”