In a state of 40 million, there is a lot of potential for sickness. The trajectory is 56% of the population will get Covid-19. That is 22, 400,000 people will get sick. There are 3 known corona virus victims in the city where I live, and 17 throughout the county. At least the governor of Califronia is taking a proactive approach to lessening the spread of this virus – the new state mandate is everyone shelter in place, but you can get out to shop for food, get medical care, bank, buy gas. You can get out for exercise in open spaces. I cannot believe the fact that kids are flocking to our southern beaches to play and party and crowd together, yet that is youth – indestructible and still in a world of magical thinking. Yet, I do get it.
Meanwhile, I am sitting here pondering what to do with myself. The other half is home, working full time and telecommuting again (he is happy). We sort of tumble over each other at times, but part of that is just life in a smallish house. Unlike many people, we are going to be fine no matter what happens – income, insurance, access to doctors and care. Good neighbors. People to call. I am pondering because all the things I should avoid suddenly become things I want to do! I need to really sit down and put a bit of a list together for fun things and necessary things to do. It would be a great time to do a bit of cleaning – but where do you bring discards if the places such as Goodwill are closed? Life will continue, no matter what happens, and getting creative and productive is important. Cabin fever is not something I like, nor do most people, I expect.
I am glad I live in a state, expensive as it is, with problems like every place else, is genuinely concerned about the welfare of its citizens (and non-citizens). Governor Newsom is working for the people, not for the profiteers. In this country with poor healthcare and safety nets, all the overlords will be so sad when their worker bees die from the virus because sick leave and health care are unavailable. How inconsiderate of those damned worker bees.
Ink, Yarn & Beer 
N~ If we realize that we are all in this together, need each other and should help each other, the better we will all be. Hoarding toilet paper is crazy, not keeping social distancing is dangerous, thinking you are not going to get ill is stupid. What we can do is to keep posting positivity. Please keep showing us your art. It’s beautiful and we need beauty right now! Take care!!
Good for Newsome. He’s taking it seriously. It seems that the leadership in this country is demonstrated only through the Governors of the States.
Federal authorities do not have the power to close facilities and impose quarantines (except for incoming through the borders). It’s up to state and local authorities to do this, and it’s good to see that so many are taking this situation seriously.
In our state, we have 168 cases at the moment. Those are about 4% of the tests which have been run, and they’re only testing people with suspicious symptoms. The largest number of cases are in our county. Public spaces have been shut down here since early this week or late last week. Our gym is closed, and my birthday dinner will be cooked by me. Our church is (cautiously) open, because it’s small, but we’re not going out of an abundance of caution. The local grocery store looks like a hurricane has been through. Another chain nearby has food. No toilet paper; happily, we’ve got that. My nurse neighbor tells me her employer, a major university hospital, is stocked and prepared, and both there and at our local hospital, triage tents have been set up to divert people who display symptoms away from other patients.
I’ve posted on our local Next Door site about a couple of things people can do to help hourly folks who are losing work. First, if you employ people to clean your house or do your yard work, and they are unable to come through no fault of their own, consider, if you are able, paying them anyhow. Also, if able, make a donation to your local Food Bank. This can probably be done online. This would help people suddenly struggling to afford groceries.
In our area, in-restaurant dining rooms are closed. Many places are offering carry-out. If that’s available in your area, consider supporting those businesses by ordering out, and tip as if you ate in. And wash your hands after opening and discarding the container! Hot food should be safe; you could re-heat just to be even more careful.
The really alarming thing to me is that I have become one of “the elderly” whose lives younger people are trying to save by going through all this. Thanks, y’all.
Stay healthy!
Katherine – Good info and thanks for the input. You and yours stay healthy, too. As far as “elderly” – best to ignore that one!
AVWalters – Yes, but as Katherine pointed out, I guess federal powers are limited. However, they can do things on a national level, which I don’t think they have, to help more people. My opinion.
Anne – thanks for the thoughts. And the art is still a-comin! Pastels take a bit of time. And I have been sewing and cycling through my toys. Knitting, too.
If you want to scare yourself, or if you enjoy statistics, check out this site. The case fatality rate in the US is about 1.4% right now. That is down significantly from the early numbers because of the larger numbers of cases now being tested and reported, and is much lower than rates reported from China (if you believe those numbers), and Italy. If you scroll down past the US reports you can find world numbers.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/
Tonight our PM upped the isolation, telling pubs, nightclubs, restaurants, leisure centres and gyms to close as of tonight. Sport and music events already cancelled. There’s going to be a lot of bored people. Especially blokes who normally go to the pub every night! It’s assumed the domestic abuse figures will rise considerably. Sigh.
I always find the British pub thing fascinating. So different than my Puritanical tendencies. And you are right…more bored blokes and more domestic violence. I hope we all get through this. Maybe our worker bees 🐝 will get some rights, too.