Coronavirus info, facts & updates

[Queen Sophie]

I live in Pennsylvania and my sister and her cat are home for two weeks because the school she works at is closed for two weeks. She works with kids with very weak immune systems so I hope they will be ok!

At my work, I’m a diner hall worker at a retreat camp and most groups canceled, especially on Friday and a weekend all the groups canceled however my boss is allowing smaller groups to join. In fact I called off those days because my family was gonna go to North  Carolina for my grandfathers birthday but my mother canceled it and I was gonna tell my manger I will be available after all but then it showed that won’t be happening.

I did read that the virus doesn’t do well in the heat and it’s a becoming a bit warmer where I am which is good. However since the weather is weird in my state, it goes from sunny to snow but I’ll be ok!

Me and my family are sending fun stuff through the mail for my grandmother. Like books on flowers, birds, and talk show people. Other crafts and toys for her cat!

So far my experience has just been canceled work, hanging out with my sister, and staying home. Hopefully this will all blow over fast!

[toyjunky]

Southern California (Orange County area) here, basically everyone (especially those over the age of 65) were advised to stay home as much as possible. Over the last few days movie theaters, malls, department stores and school have closed.

What is (and will remain open): gas stations, pharmacies, grocery stores, farmers markets, food banks, convenience stores, take-out and delivery restaurants, banks, hardware stores and laundromats. People are encouraged to go outside, but to practice social distancing practices (say going for a walk, exercise, biking etc).

As far as getting groceries though, that has been fun. 2 weeks ago no cleaning products, paper towels or toilet paper. Last week it was bread (and the previous mentioned). This week it is all food except produce. I have been to an awful lot of stores in the last week at varying times of day and locations (various neighboring cities as we were out trying to do errands). As many people have commented it is not that there is not food, it is that people have freaked out, over bought and created a panic. Store inventories are not designed to have everyone buying the same products all at once. I was able to get meat, eggs, milk and one 2 roll package of paper towels for my parents this morning, but only because I was at the store right when they opened. I did have to wait about 35min to check out. 

[Barnacle_lady]

The new death figure is 76, aged between 63 and 95. But there are still younger people at the hospital.
I am happy to see that there are interviews from people who actually did survive. Because it also gives a bit hope that its not an immediate death sentence if you say you have corona.
The Formula 1 car racing has been cancelled. There was a lot to do about it because of the preparation for the track. Some nature had to be destroyed.
As for grocery shopping, its not such a mad house anymore like last week. But still some empty shelves. Some supermarkets also started the "senior" hour early in the morning. But they don't turn away other people. The hoarding also was for online cat food because delivery took a lot longer that usual. I orderded Monday and at this moment I am waiting for the delivery man.
One of my friends has a "luxury" problem. Because all the restaurants are shut he has no place to go with friends. Well time to have take out and go to their place instead. Or cook for each other.

[Taffeta]

It is fundamentally bad for asd, period.

[Zapper]

Here's some stories:

A guy with it checks out of the hospital, and now has police stationed around his house:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/17/us/kentucky-refused-quarantine-coronavirus-trnd/index.html

And this.... could've been bad:
https://www.nj.com/coronavirus/2020/03/coronavirus-patient-gave-false-name-address-now-no-one-can-find-her-mayor-says.html

Imo, that stuff has no place here unless you know these people. If fearmongering is prohibited then sharing random sensationalized Corona stories should be part of that unless you can personally debunk or confirm them.

[StarDapple]

My clinic has dramatically decreased the hours we are open, which I think is a good thing.  I am still at home, feel about the same as yesterday.

But some good news!  China has had two days of no new cases!

https://www.rte.ie/news/2020/0320/1124268-china-virus-no-new-cases/

[Galactica]

The new death figure is 76, aged between 63 and 95. But there are still younger people at the hospital.
I am happy to see that there are interviews from people who actually did survive. Because it also gives a bit hope that its not an immediate death sentence if you say you have corona.
The Formula 1 car racing has been cancelled. There was a lot to do about it because of the preparation for the track. Some nature had to be destroyed.
As for grocery shopping, its not such a mad house anymore like last week. But still some empty shelves. Some supermarkets also started the "senior" hour early in the morning. But they don't turn away other people. The hoarding also was for online cat food because delivery took a lot longer that usual. I orderded Monday and at this moment I am waiting for the delivery man.
One of my friends has a "luxury" problem. Because all the restaurants are shut he has no place to go with friends. Well time to have take out and go to their place instead. Or cook for each other.

Well of course it isn't a death sentence- there are more than 1100 cases "reported" in my state, only 57 "reported" deaths. 

That said, there are a lot more people sick than have been reported, even the CDC estimates there are probably more than 5000 cases in this state. 
I'm just SURE some of my friends, reporting classic symptoms- definitely have it.  Half my office is out (meaning unable to work from home even) "sick" and there is a huge uptick in "flu like illness" at a time when flu should be dwindling.  Unfortunately, when the US is STILL (and honestly I can't figure out why when so many other countries seem to have it) without widespread testing (even if you have classic symptoms and probable exposure- testing is being limited to health care workers with known exposure and other high risk groups) there is no way of knowing how prevalent it is or how dangerous.

The best thing to do is to play it safe, work from home if possible, cut out all socializing and going out to restaurants-  wash hands like crazy and be ultra vigilant. 

I'm pretty sure the states that are being the most lax now will be in the same place Seattle is, in a few weeks...

As of now, no schools, no restaurants, anyone and everyone who can possibly work from home is being required (or asked) to do so.  Most daycares are closed (ours is).  Gov declared state of emergency and banned larger social gatherings.  The Washington Supreme Court has now ordered that all trials and motions of all kinds in every court in WA be closed unless on an Emergency basis until at LEAST April 27th - unless there are health and safety reasons to proceed. Several of the Superior Courts are entirely closed for any reason due to court staff being sick with the virus. (Kitsap courts)

When this started- I thought that by mid March we'd have a better idea of what was happening maybe have an idea as to when schools would be able to open.  I thought for sure we'd have widespread testing by now so that we could just figure out who was sick and not have to isolate EVERYONE.  But that hasn't happened.  I am disappointed and scared. Things seem to be getting steadily worse not better, and I have no idea where this is going to end.

My business is starting to struggle as everyone working from home puts a SERIOUS spike in productivity and also because the companies we work for- are not paying their bills.  Things need to get better fast or a LOT of small businesses are not going to make it. 

[BlackCurtains]

A Facebook friend posted this pic of Clearwater beach. They're going to close it Monday. Why are they waiting until Monday? It's all about the money, of course. Crazy.

visitors can't see pics , please register or login

[Taffeta]

I heard that California, NY state today are imposing lock downs, I hope it will keep all you guys in those areas safe. A friend of mine from uni lives in NY state but I think she was already working from home.

 I really hope it gets better in WA soon. Measures take a bit of time to kick in, but you guys have been dealing with it the longest. Stay as safe as you can. The US is a strong country. I'm sure it will pull through this once measures start to take effect. There was something on the news about the govt deploying navy ships to help deal with the pressure?

I really hope those beaches are properly closed in FL soon.

On the UK subject - we are having briefings every day at 5 with various cabinet people/health people/science people/the PM which are televised. I'm again not going to get political but at least they're telling us something.

Today the chancellor announced measures for employees who might lose their jobs, and companies, to try and support them so they won't lose their jobs. I've heard the media calling it the wage aid.

Schools are shutting from today except kids of essential workers. Grades will be done on mocks and assessments, which is usually done only if a single student has extenuating circs, not for the entire academic year across the country. Hope it won't mean more kids on the streets. Time for the Xbox, kids.

I decided to downsize my previous post as most of the info people probably already know xD.

This also may be of interest to people in the UK regarding regional impact:

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/uk-news/2020/03/20/where-coronavirus-has-spread-in-the-uk-over-the-past-week/

Bearing in mind they are currently only testing people who are receiving medical attention, and that there are a lot of mild cases probably going unnoticed.

Wales doesn't record stats regionally, nor does NI, so I guess that's why they're missing.

UK have tested somewhere around 70,000 people so far. Which is higher than some of Europe (eg France) but nowhere near S. Korea's level.

West Mids region has had some bad cases in the last few weeks, they think this down to people attending religious locations for support and finding it hard to socially isolate themselves in certain communities. The wider West Mids is a proudly diverse area with a lot of different faith communities living side by side who are looking for solace in a difficult time :/ I'm glad it's being looked into so that they can protect the people who need protecting (apparently it's mostly older community members who are finding this hardest to do, and they are at risk even more :/) All that said the worst area is still London, unsurprisingly.

[banditpony]

I heard that California, NY state today are imposing lock downs, I hope it will keep all you guys in those areas safe. A friend of mine from uni lives in NY state but I think she was already working from home.

Define lock down?

Is that something different then shelter in place?  (Although I see NY is not using that term)
california
new york

[Taffeta]

I heard that California, NY state today are imposing lock downs, I hope it will keep all you guys in those areas safe. A friend of mine from uni lives in NY state but I think she was already working from home.

Define lock down?

Is that something different then shelter in place?  (Although I see NY is not using that term)
california
new york

I heard the NY Governor speaking about it on news TV and he very clearly said it wasn't a shelter in place, he was calling it a 'pause' and that it was mandated, not optional. He also said the California governor wasn't using that term either. BUT I'm only going on what has been broadcast on our channels in the UK and so someone in the area probably knows better than me the exact specifics. I forget what he said CA was calling it - Stay at Home?

I hope this isn't trespassing into the political too much but the NY Governor said that the shelter in place term could confuse people (as it is often used for mass shootings, school shootings etc) and wasn't necessarily what was required in this situation...also that the rationale behind it was based on stats from the Spanish Flu epidemic where cases spiked in an area with a Parade that wasn't cancelled...or something like that?

Compared to what is happening here, which is not mandated but strongly recommended at present, I'd call it a lockdown, but I guess that's a nuanced term.

[banditpony]

I heard that California, NY state today are imposing lock downs, I hope it will keep all you guys in those areas safe. A friend of mine from uni lives in NY state but I think she was already working from home.

Define lock down?

Is that something different then shelter in place?  (Although I see NY is not using that term)
california
new york

I heard the NY Governor speaking about it on news TV and he very clearly said it wasn't a shelter in place, he was calling it a 'pause' and that it was mandated, not optional. He also said the California governor wasn't using that term either. BUT I'm only going on what has been broadcast on our channels in the UK and so someone in the area probably knows better than me the exact specifics. I forget what he said CA was calling it - Stay at Home?

It mirrors (or at least close to mirror) other states areas that call it shelter in place. He won't use that term because they use it for live shootings... but they are not calling it lock down.

[Taffeta]

I heard that California, NY state today are imposing lock downs, I hope it will keep all you guys in those areas safe. A friend of mine from uni lives in NY state but I think she was already working from home.

Define lock down?

Is that something different then shelter in place?  (Although I see NY is not using that term)
california
new york

I heard the NY Governor speaking about it on news TV and he very clearly said it wasn't a shelter in place, he was calling it a 'pause' and that it was mandated, not optional. He also said the California governor wasn't using that term either. BUT I'm only going on what has been broadcast on our channels in the UK and so someone in the area probably knows better than me the exact specifics. I forget what he said CA was calling it - Stay at Home?

It mirrors other states that call it shelter in place. He won't use that term because they use it for live shootings... but they are not calling it lock down.

As I said, it's a nuanced term and not worth an argument over - it seems irrelevant what they call it, the important aspect is the impact. Technically Italy etc aren't using the words lock down either, not least because they're English words, but it doesn't mean it's not what it is. Whereas by comparison the UK is not in lock down because we're under strong advisory guidance to stay home - but there is currently no legal enforcement of that (even though it could happen, as yet, it has not).

By lockdown I mean a situation mandated by govt to not go outside and do things that they would normally do, on pain of fines and other penalties. Which were outlined by the NY governor - I don't know about in CA.

Semantical disagreements on use of terminology are really unhelpful when the bigger issue is, well, bigger.

[banditpony]

I think terminology is worth defining, especially in something critical like this so everyone is on the same page and doesn't interpret it differently. This is why I linked both department of health pages so it was as direct as can be what each thing means to each state.

[Taffeta]

I think terminology is worth defining, especially in something critical like this so everyone is on the same page and doesn't interpret it differently. This is why I linked both department of health pages so it was as direct as can be what each thing means to each state.

Sure, I get that. But this is a global crisis and not an American one, and sometimes those of us not in the US have to contextualise based on the things that are similar in our very different experiences of coronavirus.

Hence terminology is nuanced. Though both CNN and the US Govt are calling it a lockdown, so I guess that's what it is.

And this is OT and going to annoy the mods so maybe let's go back to the main discussion.

Nothing new to add on previous post for the UK or my region for now.