I am amazed I just read Florida and Texas are not on lockdown yet??? I guess it’s only counties and cities that are issuing stay at home directives?
The only thing the Florida governor has directed at least is anyone coming from Conn, New York or New Jersey have to go into a 14 day quarantine. But why did Florida allow spring breakers in the midst of this and also Louisiana allow Mardi Gras?
That’s crazy!!!
You make a good point. Some governors have been slow to respond. Among states showing sharp increases, I would add Arizona (along with Florida) that has Spring Training started before they pulled the plug. Also, I think that both Colorado and Utah had a lot of out-of-skiers that probably didn’t help them.
Best of luck to all. I hope that some states begin to reduce the number of new daily cases is the coming week or so.
John
Here in Texas the governor is leaving lockdown decisions to the local officials in each county. My county is not under any local orders. We have no confirmed cases yet. Surrounding counties have from 1 to 20 confirmed cases. Most are under stay at home orders. I’d be happy if my county locked down down now, with a better chance of keeping our number at 0.
Florida has some counties with no C-19. There are 4 counties that account for a large percentage of the cases. As soon as the seriousness of the C-19 Spring Break was cancelled the bars, the beaches, hotels were ordered closed they headed back home.
I think we are in for a VERY long covid season if they don’t lock down NYC. That’s the kinda stuff that is gonna make this run into August. FL is attempting to turn away the long lines of NY-ers that are flooding in. They are draining supplies out of the Walmarts. FL is mad, mad, mad. But, then where do they go when FL turns them away? The East coast and the SE is in some real trouble, I think.
One of the problems I am starting to see here in WA is the lockdown (or stay at home, whatever is is called) has been around long enough for the professional bureaucrats to get ahold of the details. The general public will follow guidance that is clear and simple. Mealy mouthed red tape incomprehensible rules invite people to find loopholes.
I sent an inquiry with a simple question: I am working solo on remodelling my own house while I live there…can I drive my construction demo debris to the transfer station to dispose? Here is the answer:
Thank you for your inquiry. The Governor has deliberated on this issue extensively and does not take this decision lightly. Nonetheless, he believes that the best way to control the spread of COVID-19 is to temporarily limit the interactions on construction sites as much as possible. In his review of the issue, the Governor identified what he believes are the most critical activities within construction, and he highlighted those in his memo on March 25, 2020. In this case, projects supporting non-essential activities may be completed to “prevent spoliation and avoid damage or unsafe conditions, and address emergency repairs at both non-essential businesses and residential structures.” Kindly note, however, that damage must be imminent and not remote. The only other permitted residential construction is the work necessary to restore a single bathroom or kitchen in order to preserve access to hygiene and nutrition.
Lastly, please know that all businesses may continue to perform minimum basic operations to a) maintain the value of their inventory, b) preserve the condition of their premises and equipment, c) ensure security, d) process payroll and employee benefits, and e) conduct related functions. However, any activity described above must still adhere to the guidelines around social distancing and sanitation referenced in Proclamation 20-25 or any subsequent proclamation related to essential businesses.
Please remember to practice social distancing in all of your interactions.
Please do not respond to this email because the account is not monitored. The account is used by the Business Response Team with the Washington State Emergency Operations Center only to provide responses to inquiries regarding the intake form you completed. Please visit coronavirus.wa.gov for ongoing guidance.
Disclaimer
This response is intended only to provide guidance on Proclamation 20-25 and does not grant any other license, certification, or privilege.
Proclamation 20-25 does not require anyone to carry documentation or certification proving that they are in compliance. Similarly, no state or local agency will be providing special certification that an activity is essential.
I would be happier with a “no” or “yes”.
Things here (FL) will not get better any time soon. Yesterday New Smyrna Beach was packed; a Tampa church is still holding their meetings… 
I do get that some counties are not doing as bad, but as a Floridian, I was expecting the statewide lockdown two weeks ago.
I thought that Central Florida was going to be a hot spot because of the parks and tourists, that still worries me…
Here’s something posted 2 weeks ago (March 17) on Twitter regarding how different areas of the country are treating the COVID-19 outbreak …
My son lives in WA St. and what he does is deemed essential. The company is saying that they comply with rules for employee safety and they don’t. I don’t know what to do. My son doesn’t want to lose his job. He has the option of staying home and losing his vacation pay for the next few years.
When the virus hits our area a percentage of these 800 workers are going to flood our very small hospitals.
Any problems that Florida has are the fault of Florida not New York
Travel restrictions have a minimal effect once the virus has already spread. It is likely already in communities before it is realized, and cutting down travel to or from NYC will not have a large impact. I’ve read through other sources, that travel restrictions are most effective in the beginning and later stages of an epidemic.
Analysis
The team’s results show that the travel ban introduced in Wuhan on January 23 delayed progression of the epidemic throughout Mainland China by three to five days—a modest effect.
The authors extrapolate that to say that the greatest benefit to mitigating the epidemic will come from public health interventions and behavioral changes—factors like early detection, isolation, and handwashing.
Study Details Effects of Travel Restrictions on Spread of COVID-19
Study
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/03/05/science.aba9757
This is a fantastic interactive media graphic, showing how the virus spread, and why attempts at containment often fail
Snapshot
I am headquartered in Massachusetts and we are an essential business and have a zero tolerance policy for any employee in our company or outside contractor to not follow Federal, State, Local and company safety policies regarding Covid-19. One of the members of our third party cleaning crew came toward a warehouse manager and the manager said stop stay 6 feet away 3 times and that individual kept coming forward and poked the manager in the chest for fun. The owner of the cleaning company was not far behind her employee as we are their only local account still open and operating and just laughed saying “just kidding”. They were a great cleaning crew but Friday was their last day.
New company, new crew starts on Tuesday. This is a crazy time to play games, not only due to danger but lose your job/contract and you contribute to the 20% growing unemployment problem.
That is wonderful to hear. Good for you!!
My son’s employer is the second biggest employer in the area. My son works with 400 other people, although only closely with 50. The workers are working on a manufacturing line about 3 ft apart.
They have asked the company to add another shift to the two that they already have so that they could work further apart. Management refused. They also refuse to take the workers temperatures.
This company is known to be good to their employees and the higher paid workers are working from home.
They did up the workers pay by a $1.00 an hour last week. My son sees it as bribery pay. There aren’t a lot of jobs available in the area, so my son doesn’t feel that he can just quit since he has worked there for several years.
There is a sick employee in another building who they think has the virus, but all the people working with him are required to keep working. I am not sure if he has been tested yet, but he has all the symptoms of Covid 19.
I contacted a city commissioner this morning and am waiting for his call. I would contact the paper, but my son does not want to lose his job.
My son does have the option of staying home and using vacation pay. He had been saving it to help us celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary in June. We had originally been planning to take a cruise on the Danube. Sure glad we didn’t purchase the tickets!
Good for you @CJ114 If they can’t take it seriously, you never know if one of them has mild symptoms and doesn’t think anything about it. Or if some of their cleaning isn’t taking seriously in what they have to do to help not spread covid. That might also help keep them safe in the future knowing it can have serious consequences if they are lax…
Some of this might have to do with the general wealth of the community, and from what I’ve read, Vancouver is fairly affluent. In an article I was reading about NYC the biggest reductions in transit are from areas with the most wealth, while the poorest areas have smaller reductions, as many from those sections have to go to work to support their families, or are in jobs with no remote options.
The government delay was nothing but an attack on the poor - call it politics and flag it - I had to say it.
The Covid-19 virus didn’t start in New York, it didn’t just start in China; it actually started in many places. The reason NY has so many cases is more because the U.S. as a whole didn’t act quickly enough, and strongly enough to prevent the spread. One of the reasons this virus is so bad is that it is even more easily contagious than the flu, so in places with high population density, it’s spreading more rapidly. It is, however, spreading all over the country and places where social distancing procedures are either not being put in place or not being enforced will eventually be just as infected as New York.
Here in the greater Boston area, it has been spreading rapidly, in large part due to people like CJ114 has referred to…the idiots who are not taking this seriously. Our governor has sort of been on top of this, but I do think both Governor Baker and Mayor Walsh should shut things down even more, and institute fines for people who ignore the social distancing rules. Here in Massachusetts we are, according to Governor Baker, expecting the peak surge to be somewhere between April 6th and the 17th. What really concerns me, as a senior citizen who has multiple complicating conditions, is that even after the peak, this virus is still going to be around for months, possibly years. Once there’s a vaccine, at least we can prevent deaths, but until then, we need to take precautions very seriously, for a very long time.
Beginning of March our state told everyone to stock up for 2 weeks in preparation. It asked tourists to stop coming to our state (that only worked to a very limited amount)
Our state went into don’t do any unnecessary travel on March 15th. Please stay home and work from home for any unessential workers. Restaurants, could only do delivery and take out. Non essential businesses please close. Then on Mar 25th, all unessential businesses had to close and it went to mandatory stay at home and we have checkpoints all over to make sure you aren’t just wandering about. Our county added a 9:00 curfew to make sure emergency personal had some rest time for now. Even only 1 person is allowed to go to the grocery store unless you need aid. They will actually turn you around at the checkpoint for it besides what they consider non essential travel. If you are a resident you are still allowed to go to the beach to swim or run but not to gather. (no sunbathing, watching a sunset etc)
We started nice and early…what a plus except we still had tourists arriving.
The tourists and residents that traveled that come here now have a 14 day quarantine you aren’t even allowed to leave your room to get food now. They kept trying to shut down everything tourists would do and some still came. The quarantine has helped the most. I wished they started it sooner but they wanted their travel partners and visitors to be able to have time to change plans. That doesn’t really make sense as it still allowed people to arrive for days after they announced it.
But we have 2200 people in the state under quarantine now that have arrived since last week. Some are residents, but some are still “tourists”.
We were going to go into hermitize mode anyway as of Mar 14th. I am very happy about the early shut down. I am hoping it keeps our islands safer. But our numbers are now increasing faster and we had so few cases even just a week ago. I wish they had used a hammer on tourists much sooner instead of the softer approach at first.
