Six Bay Area counties announced a “shelter in place” order for all residents on Monday — the strictest measure of its kind in the country — directing everyone to stay inside their homes and away from others as much as possible for the next three weeks as public health officials desperately try to curb the rapid spread of coronavirus across the region.
The directive begins at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday and involves San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Marin, Contra Costa and Alameda counties — a combined population of more than 6.7 million. It is to stay in place until at least April 7.
People may travel for shopping for necessary supplies, accessing health care, and providing aid to family and friends who need assistance, and for non-residents, returning to their home outside the Bay Area. Airports, taxis, and public transit — including BART — will remain operational, but only for essential travel and people are expected to keep six feet apart when possible.
People in the six counties will still be able to go shopping for items such as food and household supplies, and seek medical care. They will be able to go outside for walks or exercise as long as they keep six feet away from anyone they don’t already live with. People who are homeless are exempt from the order but encouraged to find shelter.
People who are older or have underlying health problems are being told to stay inside at all times except for health care under the new directive. They should ask someone to shop for them if they are able.
Grocery stores and pharmacies will remain open, and restaurants may stay open to provide takeout food only. Also staying open: veterinary services, gas stations and auto repair shops, hardware and other home supply stores, banks and laundry services. Businesses that remain open are encouraged to keep both employees and customers six feet apart, including while standing in line. But there are no specific limitations on the number of people allowed inside.
The real estate industry, struggling with coronavirus-linked limitations, got a boost with its sales business reclassified as an “essential” industry.
The California Association of Realtors said Saturday, March 28, that commercial and residential real estate services were included on an updated list of essential services from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
The coronavirus pandemic gripping the globe may have its origins in China, but experts say that current trends indicate the crisis will leave it in a much stronger position geopolitically relative to the United States.
“The Chinese are in a much stronger position than they have been coming out of any recent global crisis,” Ian Bremmer, president and founder of the Eurasia Group, told MarketWatch.
“They own most of the global medical supply chain. They’ve basically contained the virus through technology-powered, authoritarian surveillance, and they’ve leveraged this success by providing aid to Europe and emerging markets,” in the fight against COVID-19.
I talked with a man today, an 80+-year-old man. I asked him if there was anything I can get him while this Coronavirus scare was gripping America.
He simply smiled, looked away and said:
"Let me tell you what I need! I need to believe, at some point, this country my generation fought for... I need to believe this nation we handed safely to our children and their children...
I need to know this generation will quit being a bunch of sissies...that they respect what they've been given...that they've earned what others sacrificed for." I wasn't sure where the conversation was going or if it was going anywhere at all. So, I sat there, quietly observing.
"You know, I was a little boy during WWII. Those were scary days. We didn't know if we were going to be speaking English, German or Japanese at the end of the war. There was no certainty, no guarantees like Americans enjoy today.
And no home went without sacrifice or loss. Every house, up and down every street, had someone in harm's way. Maybe their Daddy was a soldier, maybe their son was a sailor, maybe it was an uncle. Sometimes it was the whole damn family...fathers, sons, uncles... READ MORE
source: Facebook comment
Doctors and public health experts have identified loss of smell as a potential symptom of the coronavirus that first spread from central China and has since become a devastating global pandemic.
Ear, nose and throat medical specialists from the United States and Britain over the weekend released statements about growing evidence that anosmia, or the loss of smell, and dysgeusia, or the loss of taste, were detected among patients later confirmed to have the coronavirus, despite not having other symptoms.
Ford’s media arm sent out a press release detailing the efforts to design and build the PAPRs, a joint venture between Ford, 3M, GE Healthcare, and the UAW.
The job of a powered air-purifying respirator is to draw outside, possible virus—contaminated air into a filtration system before making it available for the person wearing it to breathe. Unlike passive filters like masks which rely on the wearer’s lungs to draw the air through a filter mesh, these powered respirators can enclose a person’s entire head in a hood and flood the hood with filtered air.
The good news is that people are pulling together during this Covid-19 crisis. Samaritan House and your local nonprofit organizations are here to help. To do it, we will need your help and your understanding.
Samaritan House provides essential services – food, access to shelter, health care – so we have to stay open to help thousands of our neighbors who have been struggling financially. With more people now out of work, we have stepped up the pace to meet greater demand. At the same time other nonprofits that depend on us have increased needs as well.
Taking the data as a whole, the researchers concluded that "blood group A had a significantly higher risk for COVID-19" when compared with non-A blood groups. Those in the O group, meanwhile, "had a significantly lower risk for the infectious disease."
The difference could be explained by certain antibodies in the blood, but this will need to be investigated in future studies in order to be confirmed, they said.
The study could have implications for healthcare workers treating COVID-19 patients, the researchers said, as A blood types "might need particularly strengthened personal protection to reduce the chance of infection."
