Israel’s health ministry said Wednesday that 90 more people have tested positive for the new coronavirus, bringing the country’s overall number to 427 and sparking fears of a further outbreak, a day after authorities issued a new series of guidelines that out Israelis in near-shutdown mode.
There have been no fatalities so far but with 15 patients in moderate to serious conditions and the number of those infected exponentially rising in recent days, authorities have taken severe measures to stem the spread, warning of catastrophic consequences and thousands of deaths if people don’t follow instructions.
“We have seen what is happening in other countries that did not take these steps. Thousands around the world have already died. As prime minister, I must tell you the truth. To my joy, we have not lost anyone. However, this will not continue,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Tuesday in his daily address to the nation. “This is a huge crisis. We are only at the start of the campaign.”
The new coronavirus has spread to more than 100 countries, infected more than 195,000 people worldwide and killed more than 7,800.
The imaginary barrier that separates the Lakers from the people who admire them has been breached.
LeBron James will be tested for COVID-19 on Wednesday as will Anthony Davis and every other player in Los Angeles’ signature sports franchise.
The gravity of the pandemic had started to set in over the previous few days as emergencies were declared, schools were closed and stores ran out of toilet paper.
Now this.
The medical experts were right. The disease spreads easily and doesn’t discriminate.
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak has ordered the statewide shutdown of all casino and gambling operations as of midnight, another startling indication of the economic and cultural impact the coronavirus is exacting on American life.
Gambling ventures will be shuttered for 30 days, said Sisolak, who also ordered that other nonessential businesses, including bars and restaurants, will be forced to close as of noon Wednesday. Businesses such as hospitals, gas stations and grocery stores will remain open. Restaurants and bars that serve food will have to close or transition to delivery and takeout only.
“Today additional steps must be taken to slow the spread of the virus in our state,” the governor said.
Showing flashes of anger at times, Sisolak spoke of the need to protect medical professionals and first responders to the coronavirus pandemic. “You’re being told not to go out,” he said, and then repeated: “You’re being told not to go out. You owe it to them to listen to that directive.
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s proposal to send checks to virtually every American adult would probably be a godsend to millions of lower-income households threatened by nationwide shutdowns and social distancing in response to the coronavirus.
The lump-sum payments, the exact size of which has yet to be determined, are a key element in the administration’s latest effort to offset the cascading economic damage triggered by the pandemic.
Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin, who was in Capitol Hill discussing the proposal with lawmakers, said that the White House plan was to send the checks in the next two weeks.
Economists said that based on the $250-billion cost of the program, that would translate to about $1,000 per person if every American over 18 got a payment.
“It’s certainly a beginning. It’s necessary. It’s vitally important to put money into pockets of people who are likely to spend it,” said Robert Reich, the former Labor secretary in the Clinton administration and a public policy professor at UC Berkeley. “The more people who have this kind of economic security, the better off all of us would be.”
California public schools are likely to be closed for the remainder of the school year in response to the escalating spread of coronavirus, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday afternoon.
“I don’t want to mislead you,” he said to parents and educators during an afternoon press conference.
School districts serving about 85% of the students in California have closed in response to the coronavirus pandemic, including the top 25 largest districts, displacing millions of students.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — All 50 U.S. states now have confirmed cases of the new coronavirus as West Virginia’s governor announced the first positive test in his state on Tuesday evening.
Gov. Jim Justice said the person with the virus is in the state’s Eastern Panhandle, a region close to Washington, D.C., though he didn’t disclose the county where it was reported.
Justice used a televised address to announce new restrictions, ordering bars, restaurants and casinos to close with the exception of carry-out food services. He did not address delivery services.
“This is real and it’s really concerning,” the governor said.
There was word earlier in the day that they’d be shutting down the bars. Many braced for what seemed imminent: Restaurants were next.
When L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti made the announcement to shut down dine-in service at all city restaurants and bars, it was “a gut punch on a Sunday night,” said Sang Yoon, chef and owner of Father’s Office and Lukshon.
It was the latest body blow in a combination of hits L.A.’s dining scene has suffered in the past several weeks (for some, even longer). So much has been going wrong, at all times it seems. The coronavirus pandemic has ripped the city’s restaurants off their moorings, and there has been no time for anyone to adjust.
In an unprecedented move, nearly all trials in Los Angeles County will be on hold for at least a month, but a broad swath of services will still be accessible to the public when courthouses reopen Friday, raising concerns about safety measures.
In an order filed Tuesday, Presiding Judge Kevin C. Brazile said several “essential functions” will continue to be processed, including civil and family restraining orders, emergency petitions for temporary conservatorships and guardianships, arraignments, search warrants, preliminary hearings, bail and bond processing, grand jury indictments and criminal jury trials where there is no agreement to delay the case.
Brazile’s order appeared to be a compromise between limiting the number of people in courthouses — no jurors or prospective jurors were to report to any of the county courthouses until at least April 16 — while maintaining core functions of the legal system.
“This order will allow us to comply with social distancing and to prevent the spread of the virus within our community,” Brazile said in the statement.
The Times has posted the full order online, and it lists new extended deadlines. For example, any temporary restraining order set to expire will be extended by 21 days. Whereas defendants charged with a felony previously had 48 hours to appear before a magistrate, that deadline has been lengthened to seven days.
Orange County has executed new restrictions for its more than 3 million residents, county officials announced Monday afternoon.
“This prohibition applies to all professional, social and community gatherings, regardless of their sponsor, that are not engaged in essential activities,” the order states.
Health officials directed the closure of bars and other alcohol-serving establishments that don’t serve food. The order also prohibits restaurants from provide on-site dining. Only curbside service and takeout are now allowed.
“Any person who violates or who refuses or willfully neglects to obey this regulation is subject to fine, imprisonment, or both,” the order states. It cites California’s Government Code, which provides for fines of up to $1,000, six months in jail or both.
“We are taking these mitigation steps in line with a directive issued by Governor Newsom to help slow the spread of COVID-19,” Orange County Health Officer Dr. Nichole Quick said in a statement. “We recognize community members may experience anxiety related to the social disruption caused by COVID-19, and want to encourage residents to reach out to loved ones using appropriate methods like telephone, video messaging, email and text.”
* An earlier story reported that Orange County issued a shelter-in-place order. This has been corrected to reflect new restrictions that fall short of a shelter-in-place order.
Bellagio fountains shut, Venetian joins hotels closing over coronavirus
ByJay Jones
The Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas closed Monday night after hotel-casinos continued to take precautions over the coronavirus crisis. The dancing waters and namesake hotel as well as 14 other resorts were closed or planning to close as of Tuesday afternoon. The Venetian was the latest to decide to shut down for awhile.
This is eerie on what is normally one of the busiest weeks on The Strip but I'm happy and proud of you Las Vegas. https://t.co/7IhoCMql5x
MGM Resorts turned off the fountains for operational reasons. But it also will deter the typically large crowds on the sidewalk along Las Vegas Boulevard each afternoon and evening. At present, large gatherings run contrary to social distancing recommendations made by public health officials.
The novel coronavirus has had a huge impact on Vegas’ big hotels. Roughly half the resorts along the Strip will be dark as of Tuesday evening. The Venetian, which includes Palazzo, announced Tuesday afternoon that it is closing the Strip resorts at least until April 1.
Pentagon mobilizes 1,500 National Guard troops to help battle coronavirus
ByChris Megerian and David S. Cloud
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon said Tuesday it has mobilized 1,500 National Guard troops to help fight the coronavirus epidemic, but the top federal official for infectious diseases warned that it’s too soon to know whether a raft of strict restrictions on normal American life is slowing the infection rate.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said it may take “several weeks and maybe longer” before it’s clear whether the closure of schools and businesses and other widespread disruptions to the U.S. society and economy are “having an effect” on the deadly COVID-19 disease caused by the virus.
Appearing at a White House briefing with members of the coronavirus task force, Fauci hesitated to say when he expected coronavirus cases to peak, although he suggested 45 days “is not unreasonable.”
Hollywood Burbank Airport nearly empty during coronavirus pandemic
ByAnthony Clark Carpio
Hollywood Burbank Airport had its best performing year with nearly 6 million passengers in 2019, but the scene at the facility Tuesday morning suggests this year’s stats will look entirely different.
Airline employees stood behind their ticket counters, but there were few passengers waiting to check in. The valet parking section of the facility, which usually has at least 30 vehicles queued and waiting, was completely empty.
The restaurants within Terminal A were without customers, with only a handful of people getting drinks at a bar. Most of the passengers who were there waiting for their flights kept their distance from one another, and some wore masks and gloves.
At an emergency city council meeting Monday morning, Palm Springs city leaders issued an order advising all residents to shelter-in-place and limit their activities.
The order comes as Riverside County officials confirm a third person has died as a result of COVID-19 in the Coachella Valley.
The emergency order directs all non-essential businesses to close to the public. Twenty-one “essential types of businesses,” including grocery stores, pharmacies, banks, gas stations and health services, will be allowed to stay open. The city plans to outline further details about which businesses can remain open later Monday on its website.
“40% of our residents are aged 60 and above. We also have many with underlying chronic health issues and compromised immune systems. The Coachella Valley has 17 individuals who have tested positive and three deaths in past 24 hours. We also had three firefighters quarantined due to exposure to someone who tested positive. These all resulted in my calling the emergency meeting and Council taking the action we did,” Palm Springs Mayor George Kors said.
“We are working with our senior center and the county to help our senior population and high risk populations and many organizations, businesses and residents are stepping up to help as well.”
The order goes into effect at 7 a.m. Wednesday and will remain in effect until April 2.
At the council meeting April 2, city leaders will consider whether they need to extend the measure.
Some Southern California supermarkets are establishing store hours exclusively for seniors, pregnant women and people with disabilities.
Northgate Market has already implemented its daily 7 to 8 a.m. window for “senior citizens and disabled customers.” Starting tomorrow, all 50 locations of Vallarta Supermarkets will follow suit with the same time frame and will include pregnant women as well. All Gelson’s locations will begin a seniors-only shopping hour tomorrow as well starting at 7 a.m.
The three markets define seniors as those 65 years and older and all recommend bringing identification, as it may be checked.
Orange County-based Mother’s Markets has established a “Safe Shop” program for “elderly, disabled, those with compromised immune systems, chemo patients, etc.” every Wednesday from 6 to 7 a.m. and free home delivery for the same population.
Store representatives from Whole Foods in Burbank and Beverly Hills said 7 to 8 a.m. would be for at-risk shoppers only. The store manager of the Beverly Hills location anticipated the same would be implemented chainwide in Southern California soon.
Ruoqui Lial, the marketing director of 99 Ranch, said all of its stores nationwide would begin a similar initiative starting Monday. The company is finalizing details now.
Most supermarkets across Southern California have modified hours generally; be sure to check their websites for updates.
Albertsons Companies family of more than 2,200 stores nationwide (including Vons, Albertsons and Pavilions in Southern California) are offering special hours every Tuesday and Thursday from 7-9 a.m. for vulnerable community members, including seniors.
The “High School Musical” actress landed in hot water when she did an Instagram Live on Monday night. We can’t embed the video because she cusses, so you’ll have to imagine Hudgens’ glassy eyes, occasionally squeaky voice and multiple hair fluffs.
If Texas hospitals become overwhelmed by coronavirus patients, officials are preparing to offer alternatives, including medical tents, rehabilitation centers or re-opening shuttered medical facilities. So far, Texas has 64 confirmed coronavirus cases.
“For people who test positive who need to be in isolation but don’t need critical care, we are looking at the possibility of using hotels and motels in various regions across the entire state of Texas,” Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday after teleconferencing with hospital leaders from across the state.
Abbott said officials also discussed the need to staff and provide childcare for workers at any newly opened facilities as well as ways to increase capacity at existing hospitals. Abbott announced a temporary waiver that eliminated fees and paperwork for hospitals to increase unused bed capacity.
“Texas is ensuring our hospitals are able to care for those who contract COVID-19, while maintaining normal health care operations,” Abbott said.
As coronavirus cases continue to rise and government-ordered restrictions paralyze daily life across the state, juvenile justice advocates are urging officials to protect the mental and physical safety of California’s thousands of detained youth.
In recent days, defense attorneys have combed through their caseloads seeking to expedite the release of juveniles in custody. They point to the virus’ ability to spread quickly in congested areas and the risk that suspension of family visits could dangerously isolate children even further.
“Being in these facilities for these kids is really, really stressfu,l and the only time they have felt any type of letting down of their guard was when they were visiting with their friends and families,” said Ji Seon Song, president of the Pacific Juvenile Defender Center, an organization that provides guidance to juvenile defense attorneys in California. “It seems like a very harsh, counterproductive measure and just a really sad thing for our clients.”
In a letter Monday to state and local officials, Song’s group called for the immediate release of all youth held in county facilities who have not been convicted of their charge and all youth who have been convicted and are being held on technical probation violations. It also called for the state’s Division of Juvenile Justice facilities to release youth who would not pose a serious physical safety risk to the community.
Among a series of recommendations, the letter said that all arresting agencies should move to cite and release certain youth instead of booking them and potentially introducing to the virus to juvenile detention facilities.
The Trump administration is considering mobilizing the National Guard to help amid the coronavirus crisis and is readying two hospital ships to treat patients, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Tuesday.
More than 1,500 Guard members have already been activated in 18 states to aid the anti-virus effort, Esper said. They are providing personnel for drive-through virus-testing sites and emergency operations centers, as well as sanitizing public areas and transporting healthcare workers.
The federal mobilization under consideration by the Pentagon would put reserve soldiers under control of the president and enable them to deploy outside their state to assist with planning, logistics and medical support. The deployment would be paid for by the federal government, rather than the states.
Esper briefed Vice President Mike Pence and other members of the coronavirus task force Monday.
The Navy is preparing its two hospital ships, the Comfort and the Mercy, for potential deployments along the East and West coasts to help support patients who aren’t suffering from the virus, easing the strain on civilian hospitals, Esper said.
Each ship has a 1,000-bed capacity, but it takes a week or more to mobilize active-duty and reserve personnel to staff the vessels. The military could also erect field hospitals in addition to the hospital ships, but those facilities are optimized for trauma cases, not for infectious patients, officials said.
“What I don’t want to do is take reservists from a hospital where they are needed just to put them on a ship to take them somewhere else where they’re needed,” Esper told reporters at a Pentagon news conference.
Mercy is based at Naval Station San Diego, and Comfort is at Naval Station Norfolk, Va.
The acceptance of national letters of intent for NCAA Division I and II sports has been suspended until at least April 15 as a result of the emergency recruiting dead period that began last week in response to the coronavirus outbreak, the Collegiate Commissioners Assn. announced Tuesday.
The suspension will be reevaluated on or before April 15.
Any letters of intent signed by prospective college athletes before Monday will be managed through the normal validation process with the conference office.
Actor Idris Elba went live on Twitter to offer updates on his well-being and dispel a “weird myth” he’s noticed since revealing he tested positive for the coronavirus.
“Something that’s sort of scaring me when I read the comments and see some of the reactions is: my people — black people, black people — please, please understand that coronavirus ... you can get it, all right?” he said in the first of two lengthy video chats conducted Tuesday afternoon. “There are so many stupid, ridiculous conspiracy theories about black people not being able to get it. That’s dumb, stupid.
The new coronavirus is here and it’s not going away soon. We want to hear your stories about how the outbreak has affected you. California has called for a ban on gatherings of 250 or more people, travel from Europe has been suspended by President Trump and the World Health Organization has called the disease caused by the coronavirus a pandemic.
Events around L.A. and the nation have been canceled or postponed, including conferences, concerts and sporting events. Companies are encouraging workers to stay home in hopes of protecting workers from the spreading coronavirus as doctors and health officials work to create a vaccine.
Social distancing and in some cases, extended quarantines, have upended daily routines. We want to hear from you on the unique ways that you are experiencing isolation.
The reality is starting to set in: Coronavirus has a lot of people stuck at home. Sports are shut down. Some people are temporarily out of work or might be soon. Budgets for luxuries — like premium TV —are tightening.
So how do we stay entertained without breaking the bank with $20-a-pop movies on demand? Streaming services, of course.
It turns out that if you string together various streamers’ current free-trial offers just right, you can have a pandemic’s worth of entertainment without paying a dime.
In San Francisco Bay Area, compliance with ‘shelter in place’ order is uneven
ByL.A. Times Staff
SAN FRANCISCO — Emergency orders further upended normal life across the greater San Francisco Bay Area on Tuesday, as businesses, schools and other institutions closed and the number of coronavirus cases continued to creep up.
Seven Bay Area counties on Monday ordered residents to “shelter in place” until at least April 7, going out only for essential needs, such as visiting grocery stores, pharmacies, doctors and relatives. Officials say the order seeks to prevent COVID-19 from overwhelming the healthcare system of a region where 7 million people live.
San Francisco opened at least 37 recreation sites as emergency child care centers, as did other cities wanting to serve families needing to work while their children are out of school. The Bay Area Rapid Transit system continued to operate, while ferry operators reduced services. Shelters remained open for the homeless, who, having no roofs over their heads, are exempt from the order to stay home.
Four players on the Brooklyn Nets, whose last game was played against the Los Angeles Lakers, have tested positive for the coronavirus, the team announced on Tuesday.
The Los Angeles school district on Tuesday was ramping up “grab and go” food services to help feed more than half a million children displaced by the closing of schools due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Starting on Wednesday, parents and students can pick up food at 60 sites scattered throughout the nation’s second-largest school district. A complete list and map of locations in Los Angeles and information about other resources have been published on the district website.
More than 85% of school districts in California have been closed in response to the coronavirus pandemic, including the top 25 largest districts, serving millions of students. Teachers in most closed schools are trying to continue instruction through online coursework and extended homework assignments. L.A. Unified also has partnered with PBS SoCal to provide expanded educational programming.
Italy sees wartime-era stress at hospitals — and cemeteries
ByTom Kington
ROME — In parts of Italy, the coronavirus means the local cemetery keeps its crematorium running 24 hours, the newspaper adds far more obituary space than normal, and families yearn to touch loved ones in hospital isolation wards.
Hospital staffs often find themselves filling in where relatives and spiritual leaders cannot, even as they face their own risk of infection.
In some cases, doctors in overflowing hospitals are facing the toughest choice of their lives by determining which patient gets a lifesaving ventilator when there are not enough for everyone in need.
That is the kind of wartime decision-making that is now part of the shift at Bergamo’s Papa Giovanni XXIII hospital, where Dr. Fabiano di Marco has not had a day off since Feb. 21, the day the city realized the virus was in its midst.
L.A. County confirms 50 new coronavirus cases as California death toll rises to 11
ByL.A. Times Staff
L.A. County announced 50 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus, bringing the county’s total to more than 140.
“We continue to see a huge increase in the number of cases,” public health director Dr. Barbara Ferrer said during a news conference Tuesday, adding that the rise in numbers is largely due to the increased capacity for testing.
Ferrer stressed the need for people to stay home, including anyone who is sick.
“If you’re sick and you’re an essential worker, please don’t come to work,” she said. “We cannot have people that are sick, even with mild illness, going about their business.”
Beverly Hills is ordering Rodeo Drive retailers and most plastic surgeons’ offices shuttered amid the coronavirus crisis.
The Beverly Hills City Council approved the measure, joining many other California cities in closing down commerce in the short term, and declared a local emergency.
All nonessential retail businesses, including those on Rodeo Drive, will be closed except for pick-up, delivery and certain transactions by appointment, the city directed.
Also all bars and nightclubs in the city that do not serve food are to be closed to the public. Restaurants can offer food to customers via delivery service or takeout. Dine-in food service is prohibited.
Cinemas and gyms have also been shuttered, along with nail salons, hair salons and massage parlors. Beverly Hills’ array of plastic surgeons will see their doors shut as services are prohibited including “all elective medical and surgical procedures” as well as “all elective dental procedures.”
On the day after Major League Baseball conceded the delay in its season could last months rather than weeks, each team has agreed to contribute $1 million to a fund to assist ballpark workers who suddenly have themselves out of work because of the coronavirus hiatus.
In a statement Tuesday, commissioner Rob Manfred said representatives of all 30 teams had reached out to him over the previous 48 hours about how to “help assist the thousands of ballpark employees” affected by the delay.
Manfred said the owners were “motivated by desire to help some of the most valuable members of the baseball community.”
Manfred said each club would announce details particular to their community, and with respect for state and local laws as well as collective bargaining agreements.
With the travel industry staggered by the coronavirus outbreak, Marriott International said Tuesday it planned to furlough tens of thousands of workers in the face of unprecedented booking cancellations.
The world’s largest hotel company, with 30 hotel brands and more than 7,000 properties worldwide, confirmed reports that it would be forced by a surge in cancellations to either cut back work hours or issue furloughs to a large portion of its workforce. Marriott International employed 174,000 people around the world at the end of 2019, according to securities filings.
“We are adjusting global operations accordingly, which has meant either reduction in hours or a temporary leave for many of our associates at our properties,” the company said in a statement Tuesday. “Our associates will keep their health benefit during this difficult period and continue to be eligible for company-paid free short-term disability that provide income protection should they get sick.”
Mattresses full of money, getting paid to take out a mortgage, surging demand for safe-deposit boxes — these are some of the ideas people have about what happens when interest rates turn negative.
Just a few months ago, such scenes — at least in the U.S. — seemed unthinkable. But with Treasury yields tumbling and the Federal Reserve abruptly slashing rates to near zero on Sunday, Americans may soon get a taste of them firsthand.
Panic over the coronavirus and its threat to the global economy has made the prospect of negative rates in the U.S. at once all too real. Americans are currently staring at Treasury yields closer to zero than they were during the 2008 financial crisis. JPMorgan Chase & Co. says the odds are rising that T-bills will go negative and hurt savers in the $3.8-trillion money-market-fund industry. Indeed, traders in Asia woke Monday to quotes below zero on some bills.
It’s probable that not even the Atomic Clock has the ability to keep up with the speed with which major American corporations extended their hands for government bailouts in the novel coronavirus crisis.
So far, we’ve heard from the airline, hotel, casino and cruise ship industries, all of which assert that they’re facing immense losses and even bankruptcy as the lockdown of American and international economies take hold.
Surely there will be more, since the Trump administration has been signaling its willingness to listen.
BEIRUT —The coronavirus has turned bustling Beirut into a timid capital: You can see it in the lone jogger on the city’s normally crowded seaside corniche; in the absence of gray-haired habitués from their haunts. You could also spot it in Abu Shadi, the outgoing neighborhood baker secretly handing a box of cheese-and-spinach pies to a customer as if it were something illicit.
“We’re supposed to be closed, but — quickly! — take this and go,” he said, looking down the street as a patrol car approached. The buyer hid the box under his arm, scurrying away. Abu Shadi looked sheepish as he lowered the bakery’s shutters moments before the police drove by.
Beirut residents often boast that even at the height of the 15-year civil war the city never shut down. They take pride in the Lebanese capital’s party-while-the-bombs-fall attitude. Yet there is decidedly less partying now, with the coronavirus bringing a calculus that conflict did not. For Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries, the race to slow the spread of the disease — to “flatten the curve” — has turned desperate, as governments fear the pandemic will overwhelm health systems battered by instability and deal death blows to economies already on the brink.
Los Angeles City Council meetings typically draw a feisty crowd ready to sound off about planned housing developments, lawsuit settlements and city contracts.
Tuesday’s meeting was held with new measures meant to curb the spread of COVID-19: Amid the unprecedented shutdown of Los Angeles businesses and schools amid the coronavirus crisis, city officials erected a tent outside City Hall so the public could watch the meeting on a video screen and comment remotely to the city’s 15 council members.
Several speakers complained about the setup, arguing it was unfair and disenfranchising. “Keeping the public outside of a public meeting in 52-degree weather with no heaters and no bathrooms is not a pandemic response, it’s oppression!” said Sabrina Johnson, a member of the homeless advocacy group KTown for All.
Rob Quan of the Unrig L.A. coalition also complained that there were no restrooms and questioned whether the site was accessible to people with disabilities. Shortly after he spoke, a city attorney said there was a wheelchair lift by the outdoor steps.
Julie Carol was in good spirits Tuesday morning as she approached the front of Trader Joe’s in Monrovia. The 71-year-old would finally get that elusive carton of eggs.
As fear of the coronavirus continues to change people’s everyday lives, some grocery stores recently announced they’d host special shopping hours for senior citizens.
Word had gotten out that those 65 and older would have a special 30-minute time slot to purchase groceries at Trader Joe’s in Monrovia before it opened to the general public at 9:30 AM.
Very quickly, the mood went from hope to confusion and heartache. And anger.
A Trader Joe’s employee on site told those gathered that to his knowledge no such special shopping hours had been planned.
MEXICO CITY —Amid mounting global dread about coronavirus, the 12 young airline passengers apparently stirred scrutiny because of their facial attire — they all donned protective masks.
According to Mexican authorities, that was the origin of suspicions that led El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Monday to air an incendiary accusation: Twelve travelers with COVID-19 were about to board an Avianca jet Monday afternoon from Mexico City to San Salvador.
“I ask all the people who are thinking of boarding that flight, DON’T DO IT,” tweeted Bukele, who denounced Mexican officials as “irresponsible” for allowing the dozen “confirmed positive” individuals to travel freely.
“Those who board the flight are putting their families’ lives at grave risk,” the Salvadoran president wrote. “The crew is also at risk. … These patients should be isolated, not circulating in the airport.”
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced Tuesday that his department was pushing back the April 15 deadline to pay taxes owed, giving individuals and many businesses 90 extra days to send checks to the government.
Individuals can defer up to $1 million of tax liability and corporations get an extension on up to $10 million, Mnuchin said.
“All you have to do is file your taxes,” he said. “You’ll automatically not get charged interest and penalties.”
The payment extension, which affects millions of taxpayers, is part of the Trump administration’s effort to curb the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Mnuchin said the delay would free up $300 billion of liquidity in the economy as individuals and businesses had more time to pay their taxes.
NEW ORLEANS —Over the past 180 years, the family that runs Antoine’s, a bastion of the French Quarter, managed to keep the restaurant open despite the Civil War, two World Wars, Prohibition, the Great Depression and Hurricane Katrina — but not the coronavirus.
This week, with three deaths and 136 coronavirus cases statewide, most in the New Orleans area, Louisiana’s governor closed bars and restricted restaurants to takeout orders until April 13 to prevent the disease’s spread. Antoine’s shut indefinitely.
“Who’s going to come and get a pompano Pontchartrain takeout?” owner Lisa Blount said as she sipped her last wine Monday night. “I can’t give you Antoine’s on Grub Hub.”
Few U.S. cities are as dependent on fine dining and drinking to drive tourism and the local economy as is New Orleans. The coronavirus arrived during peak spring tourist season, forcing the postponement of a slew of events including the French Quarter Festival and leaving the fate of others like Jazz Fest in doubt. And this week’s sudden closures are likely a preview of what’s to come for other cities, imperiling culinary institutions and leaving hundreds of the chefs, bartenders, waiters and kitchen staff they rely on adrift.
This is not a test. This is not a drill. This is the real thing. If only it weren’t.
We are learning so much so fast about what we need to have in place when a pandemic happens, only it has happened and a lot of us weren’t prepared — or were prepared but for very different disasters, for the grab-your-most-important-papers fires and keep-your-shoes-by-your-bed earthquakes.
The coronavirus is requiring us to be ready in new ways — and we are trying, we’re adapting fast, but the pandemic may be spreading faster.
There are things we were supposed to have taken care of earlier for that long-expected guest that we’ve always called the Big One: stocking up on the basics — the water, the toilet paper, the batteries, the canned goods.
Screen icon Tom Hanks stunned the world last week when he announced that he and wife and actress Rita Wilson had tested positive for the coronavirus — the first stars to go public with their diagnoses.
Since then, a handful of celebrities have revealed that they, too, have contracted the respiratory illness, with varying symptomatic effects.
From a Bond girl to a “Game of Thrones” wildling, here are all the known famous coronavirus patients so far.
Activists who have been advocating for the rights of assistants in Hollywood’s film and television industry have created a relief fund to help these low paid workers during the Covid-19 crisis.
The three women who have been spearheading the movement know as #Payuphollywood — Liz Alper, Jamarah Hayner and Deidre Mangan — along with a group of leading TV writers and others, launched a GoFundMe site to raise money for assistants who face lost work as productions shut down.
The Junior Hollywood Radio & Television Society and YEA!, a nonprofit organization supporting activism in the entertainment industry, also are backing the fundraising effort.
Soccer officials in Europe and South America voted Tuesday to postpone major international tournaments scheduled for this summer for one year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
UEFA, the governing body for soccer in Europe, will delay the quadrennial European Championships that was scheduled to kick off in Rome in June until June 2021.
Leaders of UEFA, the European club association, the European leagues and the players’ union — meeting via video conference — also committed to completing all domestic and European club competitions by the end of June “should the situation improve and resuming play be appropriate.”
Most of the world’s major leagues have halted play in an effort to slow the spread of the pandemic. Others are playing in front of limited crowds or in empty stadiums. The Euros were scheduled to be played in a dozen European countries before finishing in London.
Like every show before it, this one began with a thrum of discordant strings, the singers, in costume, standing at attention, as they await their musical queues.
Unlike every other show before it, the seats are empty of spectators. For its final show, the Industry’s critically acclaimed new opera, “Sweet Land,” is being staged only for a trio of video cameras.
As the action unfolds, Derrell Acon, a bass-baritone singer dressed in red-and-white regalia in the role of Grandfather, presents a bowl of fruit to the open sky in the open-air theater in Los Angeles State Historic Park, where the opera is staged. On this evening, his deep melancholic notes sound especially mournful.
Looking to combat coronavirus, L.A. could allow tents on sidewalks during daytime
ByDavid Zahniser
Three members of the Los Angeles City Council called Tuesday for the city to temporarily stop enforcing a law requiring tents to come down during daytime hours, saying the change is needed to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Council members Mike Bonin, Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Gil Cedillo said they also want city sanitation workers to temporarily stop confiscating the possessions of homeless Angelenos unless those items are deemed to be hazardous.
The proposal also calls for city agencies to install portable toilets, hand-washing stations, dumpsters and vermin-proof trash cans at major homeless encampments. Those areas would also receive weekly shower service.
Homelessness is a “public health crisis that is ongoing, continuing and worsening,” the three council members wrote. “That crisis is made exponentially worse by the spread of COVID-19.”
The French Open, traditionally the second of tennis’ four Grand Slam tournaments, has been postponed from May until September. The start was pushed back to Sept. 20, a week after the scheduled conclusion of the U.S. Open, making it the fourth Grand Slam of the year.
Playing two Grand Slam tournaments in quick succession will test players’ conditioning and test their adaptability in shifting from hard court to clay with little time to adjust. The change also causes a scheduling conflict with the Laver Cup, a men’s team event scheduled to be held in Boston from Sept. 25-27.
The Australian Open was played this year before the coronavirus pandemic began. Novak Djokovic won the men’s title and Sofia Kenin was the women’s winner, her first Slam singles title. The French Open was to have been played on the red clay of Roland-Garros Stadium from May 24-June 7.
Wimbledon officials said Tuesday, “At this time, we continue to plan for The Championships and the grass court season.” Wimbledon is scheduled to be played from June 29-July 12.
On Sunday night, Mayor Eric Garcetti made an announcement that movie theaters in Los Angeles, along with other entertainment venues, bars and fitness centers, would all be closed until at least March 31 to slow the growing coronavirus pandemic. On Monday that shutdown was expanded to include all of Los Angeles County. National cinema chains such as AMC and Regal also closed all their venues.
For independent theaters in Los Angeles, the shutdown comes at an already perilous time, as they fight for audiences against the larger chains and studio blockbusters, as well as the increasing dominance of streaming platforms as part of audiences’ entertainment options.
“Frankly, we’ve already been in a fight to stay above water with streaming,” said Christian Meoli, owner and operator of Arena Cinelounge in Hollywood.
Initially, Meoli thought he would be able to stay open as the city encouraged social distancing and at first looked to merely limit the size of audiences.
Coronavirus threatens to thin the ranks of police and firefighters on the front lines
ByCindy Chang, Alene Tchekmedyian, Richard Winton
As the coronavirus outbreak ravaged a nursing home in Kirkland, Wash, it also hit the local fire department hard.
No firefighters tested positive for the virus. But nearly a third of the 95-member department had to go into quarantine after coming to the aid of coronavirus patients.
Faced with an escalating number of infected people, police and fire departments can quickly become overwhelmed as more first responders are taken out of commission, creating staffing nightmares. Masks and other protective equipment are in short supply worldwide and could potentially run out as first responders care for patients and then need a new set.
The toll is starting to be felt in Los Angeles County, with nearly 100 confirmed coronavirus cases and more announced each day.
Tesla’s Fremont factory was up and running at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday, despite the “shelter in place” lockdown issued by Alameda County and five other Bay Area counties the day before.
Workers leaving the plant after the night shift said the automobile plant was churning out cars as usual – the Model 3, the Model X, the Model S and the newest Model Y. The parking lot was packed to capacity of about 3,000 cars, as dozens of morning-shift workers searched for overlooked spaces. Workers even parked in fire lanes.
Dozens of shuttles and full-size buses ferried morning workers to the factory and took night-shift workers away. Departing workers packed shoulder to shoulder at the door of each bus, waiting to get on. The buses take workers to offsite lots and as far away as Tracy and Stockton.
Many of Los Angeles’ top real estate brokerages — including Compass, Douglas Elliman, Hilton & Hyland and Deasy Penner Podley — are telling their agents to work from home as the area deals with the spread of coronavirus.
The office closures arrive after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday advised against gatherings of 50 people or more for the next eight weeks. As of Monday, there were 94 cases of the virus reported in Los Angeles County.
It will likely be a big adjustment for many agents, who usually rely on person-to-person interaction to show listings and close deals. Many open houses planned for this week have been canceled.
On Monday, Compass sent out a nationwide memo to its staffers offering advice on setting up virtual house tours, adding that it’s currently working on additional online tools to aid the process. It noted that agents can still decide to give in-person tours of their properties.
After more than 30 years in advertising, Loretta and Roddy celebrated their retirement with a trip.
They left their home in Orlando, Fla., for the Philippines on Feb. 4. At one point, they traveled to Thailand. They had layovers in Seoul on the way to the Philippines and the way back to the U.S.
On March 8, they flew into Los Angeles International Airport. They planned to stay at Roddy’s sister’s house in Walnut for two nights and then fly back to Florida on March 10.
What happened next is a nightmarish and ultimately tragic tale of missed signals and bureaucratic stumbling blocks that have shattered the couple’s lives and family.
The coronavirus pandemic is forcing us into a nationwide experiment with online education.
Until now, online education has largely held a supplemental and supporting role to traditional classroom learning.
But, as campuses across the country shut down in-person instruction and shift en masse to exclusively using distance learning in an effort to limit transmission of the virus, we suddenly find ourselves thrust into uncharted territory.
Natalia Guzman, co-owner of OC Fit in Tustin, wipes down equipment with disinfectant wipes.
(Cindy Carcamo / Los Angeles Times)
Southern California gym chains, boutique fitness spots and personal trainers are scrambling to find alternative ways to sweat as their facilities are forced to close because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Some gym operators are taking their classes to the internet, and trainers are hustling to arrange travel times and new schedules to accommodate home visits or small outdoor classes.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Sunday night announced the shutdown of gyms, bars, nightclubs, entertainment venues and dine-in restaurant service through March 31 to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, a step taken in New York and several other cities around the nation. Los Angeles County supervisors issued a similar order Monday for the 88 cities under their jurisdiction, and Gov. Gavin Newsom asked all such businesses across California to close, and in the case of restaurants to switch to takeout only.
Some fitness chains are closing gyms even in cities that hadn’t yet ordered them.
Kids, as we know, are notorious for bringing home bugs.
Colds, coughs, stomach viruses, contagious skin infections that flourish like red sores around tiny noses and mouths. With two children under 6, we’ve weathered it all.
Still, I dreaded the thought that one day a bug so mighty would come along and conquer one or both parents.
This month, of all months, we lived out that fear — just as the global coronavirus pandemic grabbed hold worldwide.
A day after the first U.S. death was announced in Washington state, my 3-year-old son began to struggle with a dry cough, runny nose and congestion. Then, just as a virus-struck cruise ship was held out at sea, my husband got hit with body aches, fatigue, headaches and a painful sore throat.
A staff member who had “flu-like symptoms” at a Redondo Beach assisted-living community has been diagnosed with the coronavirus, and two residents were hospitalized “with fever and respiratory symptoms,” the company that runs the facility confirmed Tuesday.
A statement from the Kensington Redondo Beach assisted-living community said the staff member reported symptoms on March 6 and was sent home. The employee has since been hospitalized, placed on paid medical leave “and will not return to the community until after they have been cleared by a doctor,” the facility said.
The two residents who were hospitalized have not been confirmed with a diagnosis, and the statement said no other residents were showing any symptoms. The supervisor of the employee diagnosed with coronavirus was also displaying “flu-like” symptoms and was instructed to self-quarantine and refrain from returning to work for at least 14 days, the statement said.
The International Olympic Committee has received billions of dollars from broadcasters and corporate sponsors wanting to be part of the massive sporting event. Organizers in Japan have spent billions on venue construction and other preparations.
“The IOC’s decision will not be determined by financial interests,” the committee said in a lengthy communique, adding that it is protected by “risk management policies and insurance.”
Tokyo 2020 organizers echoed this sentiment in announcing the torch relay — sponsored by a large soft-drink company, an auto manufacturer and other corporations — will begin as planned next week.
Faced with the mass closure of movie theaters across the globe, Walt Disney Studios is indefinitely delaying the release of one of its biggest summer films, the Marvel superhero film “Black Widow.”
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to shake Hollywood to its core, the Scarlett Johansson film, which had been set to open May 1, follows Universal’s “A Quiet Place Part II” and “F9” and MGM’s Bond film “No Time to Die” in shifting from its planned release date as studios scramble to protect their most anticipated films from a rapidly cratering box office.
Guatemala blocks U.S. deportations because of coronavirus
ByMolly O’Toole, Cindy Carcamo
GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala — Guatemala on Tuesday became the first Central American nation to block deportation flights from the United States in an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, a dramatic turnabout on Trump administration policies barring entry to asylum seekers from the region.
Guatemala’s ministry of foreign affairs announced that all deportation flights would be paused “as a precautionary measure” to establish additional health checks. Ahead of the announcement, President Alejandro Giammattei said in a Monday news conference that Guatemala also would close its borders completely for 15 days.
“This virus can affect all of us, and my duty is to preserve the lives of Guatemalans at any cost,” he said.
Guatemala, a major source of migration to the United States as well as a primary transit country for people from other nations headed to the U.S.-Mexico border, in recent days has blocked travelers from the U.S., as well as arrivals from Canada and a few European and Asian countries.
With schools closed across the country and millions of parents working from home for the foreseeable future because of the coronavirus outbreak, it’s inevitable that children will consume more television in the coming weeks.
And if your kids spend a lot of quality time with Elmo and friends during the middle of a global pandemic, that’s just fine, says Polly Conway, TV editor at Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization that reviews and evaluates children’s media.
“We’re all figuring it out in real time,” she says. “Our angle is that we just need to go easy on ourselves right now and kids are going to be OK if they get a little more screen time than normal — or a lot more than normal.”
The goal is to stick to age-appropriate media and, ideally, “to interact with them while they are watching and ask questions,” Conway says, “but we know full well that that might not be possible.”
Huntington Beach closes libraries and declares local emergency in response to coronavirus outbreak
ByFaith E. Pinho
Huntington Beach said Tuesday morning that all of its five library branches would be closed to the public through April 15.
City officials met — several feet apart from one another — on Monday evening to unanimously declare a local emergency due to the coronavirus outbreak, approve a three-pronged emergency response plan and officially launch the next phase of that program.
The vote triggered the cancellation of all nonessential recreational services at city libraries and community centers. Library late fees and holds are suspended during the closure.
Huntington Beach already had suspended all library events through April 12.
SINGAPORE — At the end of last month, thousands of Muslim missionaries from two dozen countries congregated at a sprawling mosque complex outside the Malaysian capital for a weekend of prayer.
Now authorities in multiple countries are searching for people who attended the event, a key driver of a surge in coronavirus cases across Southeast Asia that has prompted sweeping new travel restrictions and social distancing measures.
Malaysian health officials said Tuesday that they had traced more than 400 infections — and one death — to the four-day gathering at the Seri Petaling mosque outside Kuala Lumpur from Feb. 27 to March 1. The gathering is the source of more than half of the country’s nearly 700 recorded cases of COVID-19, the most in Southeast Asia.
Experts worry that many more infections could still emerge: As of Monday respiratory samples had been collected from fewer than one-quarter of the roughly 14,500 Malaysians who attended the event. Almost 6,000 people were yet to be located.
A second minor league player in the New York Yankees organization has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to multiple media reports.
The Yankees provided the update to their minor league players in a recent memo, ESPN reported. The two players have not been identified. They are the only known such cases in baseball.
The first player was tested after notifying his club of a fever Friday morning. The team’s minor league complex was shut down after his test came back positive, and all Yankees minor leaguers were told to self-quarantine in their hotel rooms for two weeks.
That player had not come into contact with anyone at the major league facility, the team said.
Amazon is prioritizing the stocking of household staples and medical supplies as it struggles to deal with a surge in demand for online orders from customers avoiding stores during the coronavirus pandemic. The world’s biggest online retailer said in a blog post updated on Tuesday morning that it was making the move “so we can more quickly receive, restock, and ship these products to customers.” The aim is to keep warehouses stocked with the items people are buying now — toilet paper, bleach and sanitizing wipes — so Amazon is temporarily not accepting shipments of nonessential goods such as flat-screen televisions and toys.
The Seattle-based company wants to be seen as an indispensable service, which is hard to do when items are out of stock and customers have to wait days for orders to be delivered. The company is fine-tuning its operation to quickly deliver things people need right now, sacrificing sales from its deep inventory for the time being.
As online orders spike, Amazon also is looking to hire 100,000 people willing to pick, pack and deliver orders amid the outbreak. Already, at least five workers at warehouses in Spain and Italy have contracted the coronavirus, and those numbers could rise in the coming months as the disease spreads in Europe and the U.S. If enough workers get sick, Amazon may have to close some of its fulfillment centers, potentially putting its vaunted delivery machine in peril.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott activated the state’s National Guard on Tuesday to be prepared to assist with the coronavirus response. Guard members who are healthcare workers and first responders are excluded from activation so they can stay on the job.
“We are ensuring Texas is prepared as we continue to mitigate the spread of COVID-19,” Abbott said. “This is a precautionary measure to make sure the Texas National Guard has the capability to serve at a moment’s notice where they are needed most.”
As of Tuesday, Texas had confirmed 64 cases of the coronavirus, Abbott said.
“As of this moment,” Abbott said, 1,264 Texans have been tested. “That number will continue to increase dramatically.”
Abbott reiterated that he’s confident Texas would be able to test 10,000 people per week by the end of this week.
The Kern County Public Health Department has confirmed its first case of the coronavirus as an individual, not a resident of the county, tested positive there for the coronavirus.
Officials are working to identify potential contacts of the person and will monitor the health of those contacts in an attempt to prevent spread of the virus.
Drone view shows Los Feliz Costco an hour before opening
Drone video captured by the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday morning showed a line of customers at the Costco in Los Feliz. An hour before the store opened, the line snaked along the side of the building, next to the parking lot and along the edge of the property.
Martin was among the first to kick off the trend, addressing followers from his home on Monday before launching into a 30-minute mini-set that included acoustic renditions of Coldplay hits such as “Trouble” and “A Sky Full of Stars,” as well as a David Bowie cover.
“I was supposed to be with the band, Coldplay, today,” said Martin, in beanie and sweater, at the top of the livestream, which drew more than 300,000 viewers. “But... we’re stuck in different countries, so we can’t play together. So I thought what would be nice would be to check in with some of you out there and see how you’re doing and where you are and what I can do for you. Had an idea that we could call this thing ‘Together at Home.’ And who knows — maybe tomorrow someone else will take it over.”
White House seeks $850-billion economic stimulus, including payouts to Americans this month
ByJennifer Haberkorn, Noah Bierman
WASHINGTON —The Trump administration is proposing $850 billion in economic stimulus to contain the effects of the coronavirus, including relief for small businesses and the airline industry, and sizable checks for American workers.
Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin is expected to outline the request to Senate Republicans at a closed-door lunch on Capitol Hill and will be discussing the plan with House Democrats as well.
“We’re looking at sending checks to Americans immediately,” Mnuchin said in a press conference at the White House, adding that the checks would go out in the next two weeks.
“We look forward to having bipartisan support... to pass this legislation very quickly,” he added.
Sheriff Don Barnes, shown in 2019, aims to have deputies spend less time in close proximity with the public.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes on Tuesday moved to decrease deputies’ contact with the public, closing front lobbies of stations, reducing in-person police reports, and suspending visits to the jails.
“Our foremost responsibility is to keep the community safe, while implementing precautionary measures to safeguard the health of the public who rely on our service and the members of the department who respond to their call,” Barnes said.
In addition to closing front lobbies and substations, all volunteer programs are suspended; this includes senior programs in contract cities and those provided by jail volunteers.
Barnes is directing patrol deputies to utilize discretion in responding to calls for service that require social contact. Where possible, deputies will call reporting parties and take necessary reports over the phone.
Community service officers and motor deputies will not respond to non-injury traffic collisions unless vehicles are disabled in the roadway or creating a hazard.
Public jail visits are suspended, and inmates are provided two free five-minute phone calls per week.
Inmates are also being screening for jail intake with the County Health Care Agency’s Correctional Health Services.
All training at the Sheriff’s Regional Training Academy has been suspended.
“We are being proactive in limiting our actions to mission-critical activities at this unprecedented time,” said Barnes. “We will constantly reevaluate these measures and intend to return to full service as soon as it is reasonably safe.
“These temporary changes are necessary, enabling us to provide those services that are critical to keep the community safe. We are here, and will continue to be here for you.”
O.C. courthouses, many cinemas among new closures in response to coronavirus; Newport Film Festival postponed
ByCity News Service, Rob Vardon
The expanding list of closures aimed to stem the tide of the coronavirus outbreak now includes Orange County Superior Court and many movie theaters.
The outbreak also spurred postponement of the 21st annual Newport Beach Film Festival, which was scheduled for April. Instead, it is set to be held Aug. 6-13.
Superior Court officials announced Monday night that all county courthouses — in Newport Beach, Santa Ana, Fullerton, Orange and Westminster — would be closed to the public through March 27.
Officials are working out details on how to handle arraignments and other legally required hearings, said Kostas Kalaitzidis, the Superior Court’s public information officer.
People called for jury duty do not have to appear. Jurors already doing service were advised to call the courtrooms where they were assigned for further instructions.
Employees are still expected to report to work, according to a court statement.
Orange County businesses struggle as South Coast Plaza shuts down
ByLuke Money, Faith E. Pinho, Hillary Davis, Lilly Nguyen, Andrew Turner, Matt Szabo
As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Orange County rose to 22, ongoing fears over the disease’s spread shuttered one of the nation’s busiest malls and continued to hammer local businesses.
The county’s total as of Monday— up five from the day before — included four cases believed to have been spread through the community, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency.
Eight of the county’s COVID-19 patients are women, and the rest are men, health officials say. Eleven are between the ages of 18 and 49; seven are 50 to 64 years old; and four are at least 65.
So far, 300 people have been tested in Orange County, officials said. No deaths have been reported.
Fears surrounding the coronavirus outbreak have hit the local business community hard in recent days, particularly as Gov. Gavin Newsom and other elected and health officials have called for stringent social distancing, for restaurants no longer to allow dine-in customers and for the closure of communal venues such as gyms, health clubs and movie theaters.
As fallout from the coronavirus pandemic hits the economy, it’s slamming the American workforce: Some 18% of adults reported that they had been laid off or that their work hours had been cut, a new poll found.
The proportion affected grew for lower-income households, with 25% of those making less than $50,000 a year reporting that they had been let go or had their hours reduced, according to a survey by NPR, PBS NewsHour and Marist of 835 working adults in the contiguous United States.
The poll was conducted Friday and Saturday, just after stocks began their steep plunge and normal life started grinding to a halt, with schools and places of worship closing, concerts and conferences being canceled and sports leagues suspending their seasons. In recent days, state and local officials have banned large gatherings and ordered bars and theaters to close in an effort to slow the spread of the virus.
The same poll found that about 56% of Americans considered the coronavirus outbreak a “real threat,” while 38% said it was “blown out of proportion.”
A substitute teacher who worked in the Sacramento City Unified School District died on Sunday of complications related to the coronavirus, the district announced Monday.
The district previously reported that the substitute, who worked at Sutterville Elementary School in February, tested positive for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. The teacher was not identified. It was unclear how long the person worked for the district.
Cases continue to skyrocket across the state. As of Tuesday, there have been 392 confirmed cases of the virus and 11 deaths statewide.
The teacher is the second person in Sacramento County to die from the virus. Both were older than 70 and suffered underlying health conditions, according to county health officials.
The coronavirus crisis has closed 20 of California’s 21 biggest museums, raising the question of what happens to all those box office attendants, visitor services associates and other part-time and hourly employees who risk losing their pay when they lose their shifts.
The Los Angeles Times surveyed eight L.A. institutions including the Getty, the Broad, the Hammer, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as museums in New York and San Francisco. All but one museum said it had not laid off part-time or hourly staff and would pay those employees through the end of March.
The Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, which announced its temporary closure Friday, laid off its part-time tour guides and two full-time ticket booth attendants but gave those employees two weeks’ pay. The museum said it planned to reevaluate the situation after March 31 and hoped to bring back employees when the museum was able to reopen.
The coronavirus hampered efforts by voters to get to the polls in some states on Tuesday as the global pandemic left the Democratic presidential primary consumed with uncertainty.
Leaders in Ohio called off their primary just hours before polls were set to open, citing the need to combat the coronavirus. Voting moved forward in Florida, Illinois and Arizona, but challenges emerged as some poll workers didn’t show up and those who did tried to create distance among voters to comply with new health guidelines limiting large gatherings.
In Florida, at least five polling stations in Palm Beach County couldn’t open because workers didn’t report for duty, the county elections department said. The county had 800 volunteers back out as of Monday, with 100 new volunteers offering to take their place.
In Illinois, Cook County Clerk Karen A. Yarbrough took to Twitter on Tuesday morning to encourage poll workers to mark space on the floor at polling sites to keep voters a safe distance apart and avoid spreading the virus. The tweet included a photo of a roll of blue tape, a piece of string and a tape measure along with a note that concluded: “THIS PICTURE CAN SAVE LIVES.”
The coronavirus has thrust a host of unfamiliar terms into our everyday discourse. Some are brand new; others aren’t but are being used in unexpected ways.
Here are some definitions to help you keep up with the latest on the global pandemic.
The Federal Reserve says it will buy short-term loans from banks and companies to support the flow of credit as the coronavirus outbreak drags on the economy.
The Fed is reviving a program that it first used during the 2008 financial crisis to unclog a short-term lending market for what is known as commercial paper. Large businesses issue commercial paper to raise cash to meet payrolls and cover other short-term costs.
For the last few years, my morning ritual has included visiting the World Concert Hall website hen I first turn on my computer, cappuccino in hand. I do it before I look at the L.A. Times print edition or anything else. This site, from Barcelona, Spain, is a terrific resource that claims to offer “every online concert in this world.”
They’re not all there, but you will find listings for an average of two dozen concerts broadcast from around the world on any given day. A few are live events; the rest tend to be recordings of performances that took place in recent weeks. Most come from Europe, because a number of radio stations in capitals overseas broadcast concerts daily. American stations do so to a lesser extent and are included.
Horse racing’s Triple Crown has been moved to the fall this year in the hope that the effects of COVID-19 have subsided enough to run the sport’s signature races before large crowds.
Churchill Downs announced on Tuesday that the sport’s most well-known race, the Kentucky Derby, was rescheduled for Sept. 5, the start of Labor Day weekend. Bill Carstanjen, chief executive of Churchill Downs Inc., said details were being worked out to move the Preakness, at Pimlico in Baltimore, and the Belmont Stakes in New York to fall dates following the Derby.
“For the second time in the 145-year history of the event, the first time being at the end of World War II, we will move the date of the Kentucky Derby,” Carstanjen said. “We sincerely regret any inconvenience this creates for our outstanding fans, whom I’m sure will understand that there is no doubt that this must be done.”
California death toll from coronavirus rises to 11 amid extraordinary rules to slow spread
ByColleen Shalby, Rong-Gong Lin II, Ruben Vives, Howard Blume
The coronavirus has claimed 11 lives in California as officials take extraordinary measures to try to slow the spread of the virus by shuttering businesses, demanding that older individuals stay home and trying to increase virus testing.
Nearly 400 people from across the state have tested positive for the coronavirus, but officials admit that is just a fraction of the real number. A lack of tests have made it impossible for officials to get a clear handle on the numbers or the spread.
L.A. County officials announced the closure of all bars, fitness centers and movie theaters and directed restaurants to move to takeout only. The directive applies to all 88 cities and unincorporated regions of the county, including Los Angeles, which issued a similar directive Sunday.
Gov. Gavin Newsom made a similar announcement Monday evening, asking all California restaurants to close their doors to dine-in customers and that gyms, health clubs and movie theaters should also shutter their operations.
In my home library, “De Chirico,” the slim but invaluable catalog to the Museum of Modern Art’s marvelous 1982 survey of the perplexing Italian metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978), had been shelved upside down.
I wasn’t surprised. My art-book library is not disorganized, but neither is it as shipshape as it should be.
When I pulled the catalog down the other day to turn it right side up, I wondered for a moment: Should I leave the book filed here, right between Spain’s Eduardo Chillida and Bulgarian American Christo, with the artists whose names begin with C? The single-artist monographs that make up the lion’s share of my library, whether catalogs, biographies or art history books, are lined up in basic alphabetical order.
Or, should De Chirico be shelved under D, the way the four books on Jay DeFeo and the five on Willem De Kooning are?
Coronavirus has authorities putting more police on streets, releasing inmates from jails
ByRichard Winton, Alene Tchekmedyian
The LAPD, while shifting half its detectives at each of its 21 stations, is also changing how it handles some of it services and shifting many online to keep the staff healthy.
“This deployment is not a response to any specific heightened criminal activity,” a statement said. “To date, we have experienced very few isolated non-medical calls for service throughout the entire region related to the health emergency.”
There is no indication that there will be any change to this posture.
“We have seen Angelenos rise to the occasion by social distancing, good hygiene and sheltering with loved ones.”
On Wednesday, all the community police stations will be closing their front desks and walk-up service. Officials said the move was an effort to ensure social distancing and slow the spread of the coronavirus.
“Instead of going to your local area station, we are asking the public to use unique email addresses assigned to each of our 21 area front desks. Those emails will be monitored 24/7 and routed to the proper channels.”
The department said it would continue to answer and send officers on patrol calls.
Trapped at home: Coronavirus could be disastrous for domestic violence victims
ByRachel Louise Snyder
I’ve been thinking a lot about a woman I met some years ago. She lives in San Diego; her boyfriend once held her hostage for three days. He first split open her lip, and then he seemed to be angry at her that she had a split lip and he took an Adidas shoe and beat her on the back. He strangled her when she was in the shower. He threw things at her and held a knifepoint to her eye.
She was in decent shape and she wondered, during those three days, if she could get out of the house and outrun him. She wondered where she might run and who might help. Shame and fear held her in place.
Less than five miles away from where she was being held, police officers learn to address hostage situations in the context of domestic violence. Thanks primarily to film and television, most of us imagine bank heists when we hear the word “hostage.” In fact, though reliable statistics are hard to come by, domestic violence episodes comprise somewhere near 80% of all hostage situations in the United States.
On Tuesday, Texas reported the first death of a resident who had tested positive for the coronavirus.
The man was in his 90s, lived about 80 miles south of Houston and had been hospitalized, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
The agency said in a statement that staff were investigating the people the man might have come into contact with while he was sick, “so any close contacts can be isolated, monitored for symptoms and tested as needed.”
Texas has 57 confirmed coronavirus cases, some through community spread. City officials across the state have declared emergencies and begun to release new guidelines. On Monday, Houston’s mayor and the chief executive of the surrounding county ordered bars and restaurants to close except for takeout. Some gyms and other businesses have also closed. Grocery stores have posted guards at entrances to escort groups of customers in and limit purchases to stymie hoarding.
Gov. Greg Abbott planned to hold a video conference Tuesday morning with Texas hospitals concerning the outbreak.
“Texas remains vigilant in our efforts to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus and will continue to do all we can to protect our most vulnerable populations and ensure that Texans have access to testing and treatment resources,” he said in a statement.
State health officials urged those 65 and older or who have an underlying health condition to stay home.
“A death in Texas shows the gravity of the situation,” said Dr. John Hellerstedt, Texas health commissioner. “It’s critically important for us all to take actions that will help protect our most vulnerable citizens. By working together, we can slow the spread of COVID-19 and help ensure the healthcare system will be able to care for those who need it most.”
U.S. stocks jittered higher and then erased those gains at the start of trading Tuesday, the day after plunging to their biggest loss in more than three decades, as uncertainty about how badly the coronavirus pandemic will hit the economy continues to dominate markets.
The Trump administration is proposing a roughly $850-billion stimulus plan to help the economy, including relief for small businesses and the airline industry, as well as a tax cut for wage-earners, sources said. The travel industry has been among the industries hardest hit by the outbreak, as planes sit grounded and hotels and casinos shut their doors.
Trading is unsettled around the world beyond the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, whose initial gain of 3.2% trimmed to zero in less than half an hour. European stocks swung from gains to losses. South Korean stocks fell to their fifth straight loss of 2.5%, but Japanese stocks shook off an early loss to edge higher.
Now that we’re all cooped up, what are we supposed to do with this abundance of undifferentiated free time? For the moment, I’m telling myself to do nothing.
The old me would have ambitiously drawn up plans. Finally, time to continue writing that book, redraft that play and start a new short story.
My mental whip is always cracking. Take out those French and Italian workbooks, I exhort myself during the summer when the theater calendar eases. Recently, I’ve been toying with the idea of taking an online math class to see if this aging brain is still capable of grappling with complex equations.
Even with my theater assignments and teaching, I’m always setting epic reading challenges. A couple of summers ago, I reread Shakespeare’s plays. The year before that, I reread (in a new translation series) Proust’s interminable and irreplaceable novel.
Working from home now? It’s time to seriously define your home uniform
ByStacey Leasca
In my house, we ask that you kindly take off your shoes before entering. We also invite you to take off your pants.
The shoes are a requirement. In the age of the coronavirus, there’s no need to be tracking in more dirt and bacteria. (According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, coronaviruses can remain infectious on some surfaces for up to nine days at room temperature. So no thanks to your footwear in my house.)
The pants are for pure comfort. Don’t worry. If you decide to go pantsless, we’ll hand you some cozy bottoms because being comfortable is what an at-home look should be all about.
Shedding the day upon entering your home (or mine) is a tradition that surely goes back to the dawn of time. At the very least, we know it goes back to the 1970s, when Fred Rogers, host of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” would get home and take off his jacket, exchanging it for a cardigan, before sitting down to take off his outdoor shoes and replacing them with his comfortable house kicks.
It was a ritual for Mr. Rogers. And it’s a way to signal to yourself, “This is where I can be comfortable.”
John Savage should be guiding his team during its first conference series of the year, but the UCLA baseball coach is now deliberating with major league teams. All parties are equally flummoxed.
“It just seems like everything’s been cut short,” Savage said in a phone interview.
Instead of trying to guide the No. 4 Bruins toward their first College World Series since 2013, Savage is coming to grips with a season cut short as the NCAA has canceled all winter and spring championships amid the coronavirus pandemic, and the Pac-12 Conference put a stop to all games for the rest of the year.
10 authors, from Laila Lalami to Alexander Chee, on the books they might finally read in quarantine
ByTobias Carroll
Readers with a sizable to-be-read shelf (or pile) probably know this feeling well: There’s always that one book (or two or three) whose continuing virgin state becomes a source of gnawing irritation. You can almost imagine it glaring at you, aghast at your level of screen time, knowing as much as you do that you were meant to be together.
Sometimes those books are daunting because of their size; in other cases, it just never feels like the right time. (For me, John Cowper Powys’ mammoth novel “A Glastonbury Romance” is one such sentient creature.)
Enter the novel coronavirus and with it the isolation regime — enforced time alone with whatever is most comforting and closest at hand. We asked a number of authors about the books that they’ve intended to read over the years without actually reading. Spoiler: George Eliot came up a few times.
As movie theaters, performance venues, gyms, libraries, sporting events and even Disneyland are shutting down to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, bookstores in Los Angeles and beyond are being forced to make some very tough decisions.
Echo Park’s beloved Stories Books & Cafe closed its doors Monday in response to the pandemic. Why? “Because it’s the safest, most responsible decision we can make,” co-owner Alex Maslansky said in a phone interview.
Though book sales remained strong last week, cafe sales dropped 50%, forcing Maslansky and his business partner, Claudia Colodro, to make the difficult decision to lock up indefinitely. “We will defer to science to tell us when it’s safe to open,” he said.
The decision comes a day after L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti ordered bars, movie theaters, gyms and fitness centers to close to slow the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19. Restaurants were forced to halt dine-in service and limit business to takeout and delivery . The L.A. County Library also closed all of its 86 locations Sunday until the end of the month to comply with state restrictions on the size of gatherings.
California wineries reel after closing tasting rooms due to coronavirus
ByDaniel Miller, Patricia Escárcega
For the last six years, Jamie Slone and his wife Kym have run a boutique Santa Barbara winery that sells about 1,200 cases of Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and other varieties each year.
The operation, called Jamie Slone Wines, relies heavily on its downtown Santa Barbara tasting room, which accounts for 95% of the business’ annual revenue. But on Monday, a day after Gov. Gavin Newsom advised bars and wineries to shutter amid the coronavirus outbreak, a rattled Slone closed his tasting room.
“It doesn’t take long to do the math to see how this can be devastating,” he said.
Amid the widening pandemic, Newsom’ directive, which was announced at a Sunday press conference, stopped short of a mandate. But it seemed to have the effect of one.
The Kentucky Derby, long known as the first Saturday in May, will become the first Saturday in September this year in light of the coronavirus crisis that has turned the traditional sports schedule upside down.
Churchill Downs is expected to make an announcement Tuesday morning that the race is being moved to Sept. 5, a person with knowledge of the situation but not authorized to speak told The Times. The Louisville Courier-Journal also reported the move.
The last time the Kentucky Derby was not held on the first Saturday in May was in 1945, when the U.S. government banned horse racing because of World War II. The war ended shortly after the traditional date of the Derby and the race was held June 9. The race was not held on the first Saturday in May 1901, but was held April 29.
The status of the other Triple Crown races remains unclear. Representatives of the Preakness, two weeks after the Derby, and Belmont Stakes, three weeks after the Preakness, told The Times they will make a statement after Churchill Downs makes an announcement Tuesday.
At least five workers at Amazon.com Inc. warehouses in Europe have contracted the novel coronavirus, a sobering development for a company already struggling to deal with a surge in orders for food and household essentials from customers hunkering down at home.
Cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, have appeared at Amazon warehouses in Spain and Italy, two countries hard-hit by the spreading disease. In both nations, the company has opted to keep the three facilities open, prompting criticism from unions that Amazon is putting sales ahead of worker safety; on Monday workers at Amazon’s main Italian logistics hub in Castel San Giovanni called for a strike.
Meanwhile in the U.S., the world’s largest online retailer is struggling to recruit enough people to pick, pack and deliver the surge in orders — and on Monday announced plans to hire 100,000 workers and raise pay in the U.S. and Canada by $2 an hour through April.
WASHINGTON —The White House is proposing a roughly $850 billion emergency stimulus to address the economic cost of the new coronavirus. The request will be outlined to Senate Republicans Tuesday and will aim to provide relief for small businesses and the airline industry and include a massive tax cut for wage-earners.
Two people familiar with the request described it to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
The White House hopes the measure will pass this week, as the administration scrambled to contain the economic fallout of the severe disruptions to American life from the outbreak.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is expected to outline the rescue plan Tuesday to Senate Republicans.
Showing that at least some members of the federal government are doing their jobs, a federal judge late last week blocked a Trump administration rule change that would have thrown an estimated 700,000 low-income Americans off the food stamp rolls.
In doing so, Judge Beryl A. Howell of the District of Columbia delivered a stinging message about the necessity for federal agencies and courts, including even the Supreme Court, to keep an eye on facts on the ground — for example, the coronavirus crisis — before trying to push through or endorse policies that would harm vulnerable members of society.
“The current pandemic of coronavirus disease further highlights the connections between health and the SNAP program,” Howell wrote, referring to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
TEHRAN, Iran —Iran issued its most dire warning yet Tuesday about the outbreak of the new coronavirus ravaging the country, suggesting “millions” could die in the Islamic Republic if the public keeps traveling and ignoring health guidance.
A state television journalist who also is a medical doctor gave the warning only hours after hard-line Shiite faithful the previous night pushed their way into the courtyards of two major shrines that had just been closed over fears of the virus.
Roughly nine out of 10 of the over 18,000 cases of the new virus confirmed across the Middle East come from Iran, where authorities denied for days the risk the outbreak posed. Officials have now implemented new checks for people trying to leave major cities ahead of Nowruz, the Persian New Year, on Friday, but have hesitated to quarantine the areas.
That’s even as the death toll in Iran saw another 13% increase Tuesday. Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said the virus had killed 135 more people to raise the total to 988 amid over 16,000 cases. Jordan meanwhile prepared for a shutdown of its own over the virus, banning gatherings drawing more than 10 people.
2020, if you haven’t noticed, isn’t going particularly well. Social distancing and self-quarantining are two gerunds we’ve all become very familiar with over the last weeks, and as far as food goes, it means one thing: You’re eating at home more. Whether you’re getting takeout from your favorite restaurants or scouring the CVS shelves for beans and hand sanitizer, we’re all eating more meals on the couch.
BRUSSELS —I am imagining Gloria Delgado in her Spanish village. It’s early morning. She shuffles from the bedroom to the kitchen, lights the stove for coffee, fills a pail with water from the sink. She steps outside, waters the patio plants, walks down the footpath to the garden.
In March, even in these days of the coronavirus, which vegetables would she be tending? Asparagus season has ended, tomatoes are long gone. Perhaps she looks after onions and potatoes, digging into the soil with her bare hands to pull a bulb from the earth. The onions would go well in a stew or roast; potatoes would pair nicely with meat or fish.
Where will she get the meat? The butcher’s truck comes to town once a week, announcing his arrival with a honk. The baker drives in every few days. Will he keep coming? I wonder. So much, it seems to me, is uncertain.
She drinks her coffee alone. Later in the day, she might walk 200 meters to the bar for a beer with whomever’s around. There are about 30 of them who stay in the village during the wintertime, folks older than 70.
It’s no exaggeration to say there’s a lot to worry about at the moment. That’s why mental health experts are advising people to pay attention to any feelings of anxiety or depression.
“The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 may be stressful for people,” says the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Fear and anxiety about a disease can be overwhelming, and cause strong emotions in adults and children.
“Coping with stress will make you, the people you care about and your community stronger.”
For many people, though, that may be easier said than done.
Officials say coronavirus testing is being expanded, but doctors are skeptical
BySoumya Karlamangla, Emily Baumgaertner
Federal and state officials on Monday said they had finally turned a corner on the coronavirus pandemic and promised a massive expansion of testing, but hopes remained dim in hospitals and clinics as patients still awaited results and overworked doctors sharply questioned the government’s latest pledge.
Some physicians in Los Angeles County said it is still nearly impossible to order a coronavirus test because the process is slowed by bureaucratic hurdles and shortages of key materials. “The testing spigot has definitely not opened up,” said one L.A. County emergency room doctor. She still faces tight restrictions on which patients qualify for testing and then has to wait for results for five days, she said.
Leigha Hodnet, 42, said she was still waiting for test results nearly one week after she and her partner were tested at a lab in Burbank. “We’re trying to self-quarantine, but it’s just really crazy,” said Hodnet, who lives in Echo Park and said her symptoms included a fever, cough and extreme fatigue. “One way to stop it is to make sure everyone can get tested and self-quarantine. But if they can’t, that’s how this becomes a pandemic.”
The ongoing problems come as the nation approaches a critical moment in its battle against the pandemic, with infections mounting, schools and businesses closing, and the economy at risk of tipping into a recession. If widespread testing doesn’t accelerate, health experts fear more extreme safety measures, such as mandatory home isolation and city lockdowns, may be necessary.
Hollywood production has shut down. Why thousands of workers are feeling the pain
ByStacy Perman, Wendy Lee, Anousha Sakoui
For 30 years, Frank Novak has weathered recessions, strikes and the slump following the terrorist attacks on 9/11.
But the owner of L.A.-based prop house Modernica said he’s never experienced the kind of business fallout currently confronting the entertainment business, as movie and TV productions grind to a halt due to the speading coronavirus pandemic.
Well, at least we now know what cancel culture actually looks like.
Not, as it turns out, a group of young people poking their elders by using social media to suggest that men who have admitted to sexual harassment maybe shouldn’t get stand-up shows mere months later. Or that making racist and homophobic remarks should have consequences.
When “canceleverything” becomes a hashtag and a mindset. When whatever remained of even office culture dispersed into a cloud of laptops hastily decked out with Zoom, Slack and dial-in numbers. When members of Gens Z and Alpha, who have been criticized since infancy for preferring screens to physical social contact, have been sent home from school to perfect their “social distancing” skills.
Even amid the threat of the novel coronavirus, the Los Angeles City Council is planning to convene on Tuesday. But there will be big changes in the way the meeting is run.
With City Hall closed to the public, council members are asking the public to watch by remote, either on television or on streaming video, and offer their comments electronically.
Members of the public who are determined to address council members from a microphone will need to do so under a tent outside City Hall, said Rick Coca, spokesman for Council President Nury Martinez.
“There will be a mic and a monitor where they can see the meeting,” Coca said in an email. “And city staff will be cleaning and wiping down the area throughout and offering gloves to those who want them and asking people to stay six feet apart.”
Since a novel coronavirus first made its presence known in China, public health officials around the world have had one fervent hope: That people who are infected but not sick would pass the virus to others only rarely. That would give these silent spreaders no more than a bit part in driving a global outbreak.
That hope is in danger of being dashed.
In the period before the Chinese government threw up a massive barricade around the province of Hubei to block the coronavirus’ escape, almost 9 out of 10 infections were transmitted by carriers who were still healthy, according to a new simulation of the virus’ spread.
Compared with a person who was sick enough to have his or her infection confirmed in the pandemic’s early days, an infected person with symptoms mild enough to escape official documentation was about half as likely to infect another person, the analysis found.
But since these “undocumented” carriers so outnumbered those whose infections were confirmed, their effect was far greater, the researchers who conducted the simulation found. They concluded that in the outbreak’s earliest days — between Jan. 10 and Jan. 23 — people well enough to have stayed out of the hospital probably played a key role in the coronavirus’ explosive spread.
Quintanar Reyes, left, and his wife, Olga Martinez, eat their takeout lunch from Grand Central Market.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
The security guards walked in pairs through the Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles on Monday like sentries guarding against the coronavirus. “No dining in!” they shouted. “Only ordering out!”
Most of the food stalls at the market, usually bustling with hipster foodies, tourists and downtown office workers, were closed. The few lines of customers waiting for food-to-go were short. Chairs were stacked on tables. Employees constantly sanitized everything.
Minerva Torres, who runs a produce stall, surveyed the quiet market and worried aloud about keeping her business afloat, paying rent and supporting her children in college.
“I think all this adds to the hysteria,” said Torres, 47, as a few customers picked through her onions and tomatoes. “This is very strange.”
It was the first day of a slower, more anxious new reality in California as emergency restrictions to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus took effect.
Schools are closed throughout California as a precaution against coronavirus spread.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Millions of families in Los Angeles and across the state were forced to adjust Monday to closed schools, childcare hassles, an uneven move to online learning and a strained social safety net — the education system fallout from an unprecedented effort to halt the spread of the coronavirus.
L.A. Unified announced more bad news: District officials late on Monday canceled their innovative effort to offer childcare, counseling and learning materials at 40 new family resource centers, citing health risks.
Instead, 60 “grab-and-go” food centers will be available for school families. Locations are posted on the district’s website at https://achieve.lausd.net/resources and will be open starting on Wednesday, from 7 to 10 a.m.
“At this time, state and local health and public safety officials cannot assure us it will be safe for the children and adults at the family centers for us to provide care for children at these sites,” said Supt. Austin Beutner in a letter Monday afternoon. “We are deeply disappointed.”
In the darkness of the early hours Monday, about a dozen immigration agents gathered outside a Starbucks in Bell Gardens.
For the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, who make daily arrests, it was supposed to be business as usual.
But that morning, they greeted one another with elbows instead of handshakes; the Starbucks where they rendezvoused was only grab and go; and they passed freeway signs that read: “Wash your hands stay healthy avoid COVID-19.”
The ICE agents were about to spend the day trying to arrest targets on a most unusual of days: the day after the California governor and L.A. mayor ordered people to ramp up their efforts of social distancing over the coronavirus. The agents had N95 respirator masks in their vehicles, just in case.
An electronic board at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
(Associated Press)
Shares rebounded in Europe and Asia on Tuesday after a brutal sell-off that gave the U.S. stock market its worst loss in over 30 years, with many economies grinding to a standstill in hopes of containing the spread of the coronavirus.
Paris, London, Hong Kong and Sydney logged solid gains while Tokyo’s benchmark was flat.
“Market experts actually originally predicted at least a 1,000 point crash for the Hang Seng index. But surprise, surprise, there was bottom fishing. Investors went bargaining hunting,” said Francis Lun, a stock analyst in Hong Kong.
The Los Angeles Police Department will shift half the detectives working in its community stations to daily patrol in order to ensure public peace.
Mayor Eric Garcetti made the announcement Monday evening, saying that the city’s detectives will start working on the streets to “help supplement our patrol officers.”
Some detectives already are out there, the mayor said, to “make sure that any challenges that arise in our neighborhoods and grocery stores” are dealt with and to help people “feel secure in the city.”
LAPD Assistant Police Chief Robert Arcos said that at a minimum, that would provide at least 300 additional officers to patrol and potentially more.
Responding to the throngs of people who have emptied their shelves in the last week, grocery stores in the Los Angeles area have started offering specific times for at-risk populations to shop during the coronavirus outbreak.
Northgate Market announced Monday that it would open from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. for residents 65 and older and for residents with disabilities.
“We recognize the challenge facing seniors and other at-risk populations, and we need to address them by providing them an opportunity to shop for essentials without fear or trepidation,” the company said in a statement.
Super A Foods in Commerce announced it would offer a special shopping time for residents 65 and older, starting Tuesday.
Starting Thursday, Grocery Outlet in Altadena also will offer a specific time for residents 60 and older to shop, from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m.
In response to the coronavirus pandemic, the California Department of Motor Vehicles has asked state and local law enforcement officers to exercise discretion for 60 days in their enforcement of driver’s license and vehicle registration expiration dates beginning Monday.
In some cases, the DMV might waive vehicle registration penalties for ticketed customers.
In a news release, the agency said that the DMV was instituting this 60-day grace period so at-risk populations, including older residents and those with underlying health conditions, could avoid required visits to DMV field offices for driver’s license or vehicle registration renewals.
Transactions that require a DMV office visit include new driver’s licenses, duplicate driver licenses, some driver’s license renewals, new license plates, complex vehicle registrations or title transfers and off-highway permits.
Transactions that fall within this action include driver’s license renewals for those:
70 years of age and older, who are required to take a knowledge test
Individuals who are required to renew in the office (last DMV visit was 15 years prior)
Individuals subject to vision testing
Individuals with complex driving history
The 60-day period also applies to vehicle registration renewals for customers who are not eligible to use an alternative service channel because of the following reasons:
Outdated insurance information
Registration expired for 90 days or more
Smog issues
Recent transfer
All DMV offices remain open at this time to process transactions that must be taken care of in an office, including Real ID.
For Real ID, the federal government requires an office visit. Real ID customers can fill out the online application before going into an office. In 23 offices throughout the state, customers can upload their Real ID documents before their office visit. This option will be statewide by June.
Mina Montano, an environmental aide at St. Paul’s Plaza independent and assisted living facility in Chula Vista, uses disinfectant wipes to clean a resident’s room March 10.
(Eduardo Contreras / San Diego Union-Tribune)
California lawmakers approved a plan Monday to spend as much as $1 billion on the state’s emergency medical response as it readies hospitals to combat an expected onslaught of patients due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The proposals, drafted quickly in response to the rapid rise in confirmed cases of the virus, will provide needed funding to open two additional hospitals in California amid concern that the state does not have the capacity to care for a surge in patients. The bill appropriates $500 million for emergency response from the state’s general fund with an additional $500 million available if needed.
Newsom wrote to lawmakers on Monday that elected officials “must rise to the challenge facing our state with every tool at our disposal and without a second of delay.”
All Los Angeles County court proceedings will be suspended for several days as concerns about the spread of the coronavirus continue to mount, court officials announced Monday.
The nation’s largest court system will go dark from March 17 to 19, according to a statement issued by Presiding Judge Kevin Brazile. Court will reopen Friday for “the limited purpose of hearing or handling essential or emergency matters.”
Brazile had previously asked that new criminal and civil trials be put on hold for at least 30 days. The three-day suspension is being carried out with the approval of California’s chief justice, Tani Cantil-Sakauye.
Citing the need to “align” the efforts of local and state officials to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus, Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Monday that all California restaurants should close their doors to dine-in customers and that gyms, health clubs and movie theaters should also shutter their operations.
The announcement, made during a brief presentation on Facebook Live, represented an expansion of the state’s public health efforts and a reversal from just 24 hours earlier as to whether restaurants should curtail their operations.
Newsom said he was “asking our restaurants to close down, for the moment, provide takeout if they wish, and operate in that frame. But that will focus an alignment throughout the state of California, at this point, we believe it’s necessary.”
President Trump delivered a dire assessment Monday of the fast-spreading coronavirus pandemic, urging Americans to avoid gatherings of more than 10 people and warning that the crisis could last through the summer.
A day after he urged Americans to “relax,” the president avoided any rhetorical sugarcoating of the danger of the disease that had abruptly upended normal life across the country and threatened to send the economy into a tailspin.
Announcing new national guidelines, Trump called on Americans to avoid eating and drinking in bars, restaurants and public food courts, and to halt unnecessary travel or shopping trips. With schools closed in Los Angeles, New York and several states, he also recommended that families school their children from home when possible.
Chad Colby, in red, inside Antico on Monday. The chef is “going to try every possible way that we can” to keep his Larchmont restaurant afloat during the city-mandated shutdown.
(Cody Long / For The Times)
Even before the city ordered the shutdown of all restaurants in Los Angeles on Sunday night, Chad Colby had a game plan.
In recent days, as fears about novel coronavirus swept through the country, the chef-owner of Antico had started experimenting with takeout at his Larchmont restaurant. He bought cartons and began selling his coveted house-made ice cream by the pint, and researched delivery apps to see which had the lowest fees. He’s contemplating creating cook-at-home dinner kits for families of four and hinted that he was working on a focaccia concept.
“We’re going to try every possible way that we can to — at this point, not make money, at this point just to keep this business going,” Colby said of his 9-month-old restaurant. “Any income that we try to do right now isn’t even necessarily to break even, it’s to sustain the losses that are going to be coming.”
With a strict mandate to close bars and restaurants (excluding takeout and delivery) until at least the end of March, the months ahead will test the resilience of chefs in unprecedented ways. Those who are able to pivot quickly and creatively will have the best chance of survival.
Responding to new government travel restrictions and plunging demand, U.S. carriers plan to slash flight capacity by up to 75% on international routes and as much as 30% on domestic flights, with cuts projected to last until summer.
The growing coronavirus outbreak also prompted a trade group that represents the U.S. airlines to call on the federal government to provide at least $58 billion in grants, loans and tax breaks to respond to an economic blow that the group called “staggering.”
“This is a today problem, not a tomorrow problem,” Nicholas E. Calio, president and chief executive of Airlines for America, said in a statement Monday. “It requires urgent action.”
Although U.S. carriers had been reporting healthy profits for nearly a decade, the cash reserves the airlines have built are draining quickly, with all seven of the group’s largest carriers expected to run out of money as early as June 30, according to the trade group.
Seven counties in the greater San Francisco Bay Area issued sweeping orders Monday that will force most businesses to close and residents to “shelter-in-place” inside their homes — the nation’s most stringent public health measures yet as state and local governments strain to rein in the coronavirus.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed called Monday’s order a necessity, suggesting that the federal response to the COVID-19 virus had been too slow and that local governments needed to take bold action to slow the sometimes deadly virus.
While it is possible Southern California authorities will issue similar orders, for now, the focus is on the Bay Area, home to the greatest number of cases with counties reporting three deaths in just the last two days.
“Many are calling this the new normal,” Breed said at an afternoon news conference, referring to the restrictions. “Well, it’s the new normal, temporarily, in an effort to protect public health.”
Shelves with toilet paper are half-empty at a Pavilions supermarket in South Pasadena on Wednesday.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti visited a Ralphs food distribution center in Paramount on Monday morning with several grocery store chain executives in an effort to calm Angelenos worried about the region’s grocery supplies.
Garcetti implored Angelenos not to “panic buy” at supermarkets, and live-streamed his visit on Facebook. “It’s appropriate to buy food for a week, as we do,” Garcetti said. “But to buy so much food for a month, or even for months, has a consequence not just for you but for your loved ones, for grocery workers, and of course for those who are most vulnerable and who need food right now.”
The grocery store executives said stores are being restocked and cleaned.
“Although we are a little bit behind on stocking some shelves, it’s not a supply problem,” said Rob McDougall, president of Gelson’s. “It’s just really a people problem in [getting] that product to the shelves.”
Idris Elba, 47, is the latest celebrity to test positive for the coronavirus.
“I feel OK. I have no symptoms so far but have been isolated since I found out about my possible exposure to the virus,” the actor said Monday in a post on Twitter. “Stay home people and be pragmatic. I will keep you updated on how I’m doing. No panic.”
Elba said he tested positive Monday morning. He recently spoke at the massive WE Day 2020 event in London on March 4. Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, the wife of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, also spoke at the event and reportedly posed with the actor. She tested positive last week.
A pharmacist gives Jennifer Haller the first shot in a first-stage clinical trial of a potential vaccine for COVID-19.
(Associated Press)
U.S. researchers gave the first shot to the first person in a test of an experimental coronavirus vaccine Monday — leading off a worldwide hunt for protection even as the pandemic surges.
With a careful jab in a healthy volunteer’s arm, scientists at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Research Institute in Seattle begin an anxiously awaited first-stage study of a potential COVID-19 vaccine, developed in record time after the new virus exploded from China and fanned across the globe.
“We’re team coronavirus now,” Kaiser Permanente study leader Dr. Lisa Jackson said on the eve of the experiment. “Everyone wants to do what they can in this emergency.”
Movie theater chains are reeling from the coronavirus pandemic after city officials in Los Angeles and New York over the weekend ordered cinemas and other venues to close and box office receipts sank to historic lows.
Shares of AMC Entertainment, owner of the nation’s largest chain, plummeted 19%, or 62 cents, to $2.60 in Monday trading. Cinemark Holdings’ stock dropped 31% to $10.13, while Imax fell 18% to $9.15. The markets plunged broadly due to worries about the crisis’ effect on business, triggering a temporary halt of trading on Wall Street.
Weeks since the first coronavirus case in California was confirmed, fewer than 9,000 tests have been conducted throughout the state.
The lack of testing has made it harder to track the spread of the virus.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said Sunday he hopes the state can quickly ramp up testing in the coming days, with help from a Quest Lab in San Juan Capistrano, which is now conducting about 1,200 tests a day.
“That will substantially ramp up in the next week or so with the two additional [Quest] labs that will come online. We’ll get those tests just from that commercial lab up to 5,000 as much as 5,500, a day,” he said. “We are increasing our capacity on an hourly basis, not just a daily basis.”
Many Orange County schools, churches are shut down as coronavirus cases jump to 17
Orange County now has 17 coronavirus cases, including three believed spread through the community.
Many Orange County schools will be closed beginning Monday, and officials are preparing grab-and-go meals for children in need. Visits to local jails and juvenile facilities also have been suspended.
Orange County public libraries are also closed.
Officials said 160 people have been tested so far in the county.
“Our decisions will determine the fate of our loved ones, the length of this crisis,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said in announcing the restrictions Sunday. “We need to take these steps to protect our city right now. The work we do now will have an impact on the city’s history. We need to do everything now to stop the spread of this virus.”
Coronavirus cases in California continued to rise as officials turned to extraordinary steps to slow the spread.
L.A. County officials announced the closure of all bars, fitness centers and movie theaters and directed restaurants to move to takeout only. The directive applies to all 88 cities and unincorporated regions of the county, including Los Angeles, which issued a similar directive Sunday. Officials are also banning gatherings of over 50 people following a recommendation made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday.
Dr. Barbara Ferrer, the L.A. County Department of Public Health director, also announced 25 new confirmed cases, bringing the county’s total to 94. There have been 41 new cases in the county over the last 48 hours, she said. At least 15 of the cases are likely due to community transmission.
The crowd outside the survival store in Upland stood waiting as the manager opened shop a few minutes early.
On a normal Friday, that eager crew wouldn’t be there.
But as droves of Californians snap up enough pasta to feed Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow and raid shelves of toilet paper in the age of the novel coronavirus, some are prepping for the worst.
That means flocking to stores like Prep and Save and snatching up their stock of survival food, hand sanitizer and masks, canceling vacations and, for those envisioning future disasters, investing in shelters.
“Our phones have been ringing off the hook,” said Tony DeCastro, manager of Prep and Save, as dozens of customers milled around the aisles. “People are buying whatever they can get their hands on.”
After several days of mystery around the nature of a website touted by President Trump as Google’s solution to the problem of getting people tested for the new coronavirus, an initial version of the site appeared online Sunday night. But if you’re feeling sick, don’t expect it to help you get tested faster.
The pilot site is part of Project Baseline, a health-and-disease-tracking initiative operated out of Verily, one of Google’s sister companies under the Alphabet umbrella. According to Google, the site “will enable individuals to do a risk assessment and be scheduled for testing at sites in the Bay Area.”
A new visitor to the site hoping to get tested must first answer a yes/no question: “Are you currently experiencing severe cough, shortness of breath, fever, or other concerning symptoms?”
If you answer “yes,” the screening ends abruptly with this message: “Based on your symptoms, in-person COVID-19 testing through this program is not the right fit. We suggest that you seek medical attention.”
The league extended the ban on team practices and meetings indefinitely and took steps to prepare for a lengthier shutdown than the original 30-day time frame, according to sources with knowledge of the plans but not authorized to speak publicly.
Three players — Utah All-Stars Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell and Detroit’s Christian Wood — tested positive for coronavirus.
14 Las Vegas Strip hotels and casinos to close Tuesday due to coronavirus
Fourteen resorts along the Las Vegas Strip will close temporarily, effective Tuesday, as the impact of the coronavirus on daily life significantly expands.
Wynn-Encore and MGM Resorts International announced Sunday that all of their Vegas properties would shut down as travel to the gambling and entertainment city declines. Numerous conventions have canceled their upcoming events, and many big-name shows, including Cirque du Soleil, David Copperfield and others have canceled upcoming performances.
“It is now apparent that this is a public health crisis that requires major collective action if we are to slow its progression,” Jim Murren, MGM’s chairman and chief executive said in a statement posted on the company’s investor relations website. “This is a time of uncertainty across our country and the globe, and we must all do our part to curtail the spread of this virus.”
David Stone snagged a cardboard box of .223-caliber ammunition from the shelf and slid it across the glass countertop, offering his go-to sales pitch: “Welcome to the biggest selection of ammunition in all of Oklahoma.”
“I’m not sure I can keep on saying that,” Stone said, explaining that the supply of goods at Dong’s Guns, Ammo and Reloading has been seriously depleted over the last few days.
“When I say sales have been booming,” he said, “it’s an understatement.”
Gun sales are surging in many U.S. states, especially in those hit hardest by the coronavirus — California, New York and Washington. But there’s also been an uptick in less-affected areas, with some first-time gun buyers fearing an unraveling of the social order and some gun owners worried that the government might use its emergency powers to restrict gun purchases.
