Nearly 7 million San Francisco Bay area residents ordered to shelter in place
From CNN’s Cheri Mossburg
Nearly seven million people living in a wide swath of Northern California, including Silicon Valley, are being ordered to shelter in place starting at midnight on Monday.
Along with San Francisco, which previously announced its order, residents in San Mateo, Santa Clara, Marin, Alameda, and Contra Costa counties, along with the city of Berkeley are being required to stay home, according to an order from health officials in those jurisdictions.
“This decision is exponentially difficult,” Santa Clara County Health Officer Sara Cody said, but added that a regional approach is necessary. “We know we need to do this.”
Health services, grocery stores, gas stations, banks, and food delivery services will remain open. Mass transit will stay open, but it is only to be used for travel to and from essential services.
The United Arab Emirates has urged its citizens abroad to return home due to travel difficulties amid the spread of coronavirus and suspensions of flights from some countries, the state news agency WAM has said, citing the ministry of foreign affairs and international cooperation. UAE has recorded 98 cases of the virus. (Guardian)
New Orleans mayor orders all bars and nightclubs to close
From CNN’s Jamiel Lynch
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell issued a proclamation today closing all bars, nightclubs, casinos, movie theaters, malls, gyms and health clubs in the city due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Restaurants will be required to end dine-in services and offer takeout and delivery only.
Pennsylvania closes all state liquor stores indefinitely
All Pennsylvania state liquor stores and licensee service centers will close indefinitely tomorrow at 9 p.m. ET, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board announced.
“This was a tremendously difficult decision to make, and we understand the disruption our store closures will have on consumers and licensees across the commonwealth,” Board Chairman Tim Holden said in a statement.
Holden continued:
“But in these uncertain and unprecedented times, the public health crisis and mitigation effort must take priority over the sale of wine and spirits, as the health and safety of our employees and communities is paramount.”
The liquor control board handles all beverage alcohol distribution in Pennsylvania, operating nearly 600 wine and spirits stores statewide. It licenses 20,000 alcohol producers, retailers, and handlers, according to the statement. (CNN)
Amazon to hire 100,000 warehouse and delivery workers to keep up with demand surge
Amazon is hiring an additional 100,000 employees in the U.S. to meet the surge in demand of online shopping amid the coronavirus outbreak, the company said.
The company is looking to add extra warehouse and delivery workers. It will raise pay for these employees by $2 per hour in the U.S., £2 per hour in the UK, and approximately €2 per hour in many EU countries. Amazon currently pays $15 per hour or more in some areas of the U.S.
Optimism doesn’t change lived reality. It doesn’t make tests appear or pay bills. It just leads to complacency IMO.
I think this has been mentioned but if not, throwing it out - Romney has come out in favor of a $1k for all plan to get through the next few weeks. IMO, sending out blanket checks is really the most fiscally sound way to help individual workers. Cut out the bureaucracy and burden of making people prove that their absences were COVID related. We just need to assume right now that EVERYTHING is COVID related in one way or another.
So, we may be heading to a severe recession – possibly 1930s depression territory – based on a British economist’s post I saw on Twitter. Global disruptions of production and massive small business failures and large corp layoffs.
I was surprised to see Mitt Romney, of all people, suggest today a $1000 payment per adult as a way to give emergency aid during the economic turmoil. Which is basically Yang’s universal basic income idea – cut out the red tape of tax credits and such.
But here’s my crazy idea: America’s biggest billionaires (Bezos, Buffet, Gates, Zuckerberg) should volunteer to join forces to donate the money rather than adding it to deficit and making our kids and grandkids pay some day. I think it should be $1000 a month for 4 months. . .
I thought of this is because someone on Twitter a few weeks ago pointed out that since Bloomberg spent $500 million on his short lived campaign, he could have instead given 1 million dollars to every American! Now that’s something!
This may seem outlandish, but we are in outlandish times…
Hasn’t that been the case for a while now? I’m guessing any well groomed homeowner who decided to take a dump or shoot up drugs in the middle of the street would be arrested, right? The guidelines prohibiting groups of people gathering aren’t being enforced in the large squatter’s camps, are they?
@rosered55, I checked back and I misread - it’s army trucks she mentions, not armoured vehicles or tanks. I apologise to you all for spreading exaggerated information! Still serious, but not quite as alarming.
I actually ordered new reading glasses this morning, precisely because, among other things, I can barely read the tiny WhatsApp text on my phone anymore. With almost total lockdown here envisaged by Wednesday, not sure I’ll get them in time.
That someone had their math wrong. If Bloomberg spent $500 million on his campaign, he could have given $1 million to 500 lucky winners. Or about a buck-fifty ($1.50) to each of the 330 million people who live in the US.
Ah, you all are right about Bloomberg! Silly me for not doing the math.
Sigh, unlike @privatebanker I am not optimistic. The economic hardship is going to be something we’ve never experienced. I’ll look for the economist’s blog post I mentioned. It was fairly devastating.
What I find most confusing is the thought that if we had just done X, we wouldn’t be in this mess. There is way too much to assume there.
Certainly, everyone wants progress ASAP. And we could have done some things sooner. But to the extent that there is anger at our own government, anger toward China’s inaction should be much greater.
Their dog messed in everyone’s yard, and where are they?