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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 21, 2020)
A3 THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, MARCH 21, 2020 California, New York give stay at home order Other states will also consider action By TIM SULLIVAN and NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press California, New York and Illinois on Friday ordered all residents to stay in their homes unless they have vital reasons to go out, restrict- ing the movement of more than 70 million Americans in the most sweeping measures taken yet in the U.S. to con- tain the coronavirus. The governors of the three states acted in a bid to fend off the kind of onslaught that has caused the health system in southern Europe to buckle. The lockdowns encompass the three biggest cities in America — New York, Los Angeles and Chicago — as well as No. 8 San Diego and No. 14 San Francisco. “No, this is not life as usual,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said as the death toll in the U.S. topped 200, with at least 35 in his state. “Accept it and realize it and deal with it.” Cuomo said that starting Sunday, all workers in non- essential businesses must stay home as much as possible, and all gatherings of any size will be banned in the state of over 19 million people. Cal- ifornia likewise all but con- fi ned its 40 million residents Friday in the biggest lock- down in the nation. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced a similar order set to take effect on Saturday for the state’s 12.6 million people. Exceptions were made for essential jobs and errands, such as grocery shopping and obtaining medicine, as well as for exercise. The lockdowns sent another shudder through the markets, where many fear a recession is a near certainty. Stocks tumbled on Wall Street, closing out their worst week since the fi nancial cri- sis of 2008. The Dow Jones John Minchillo/AP Photo A bicycle delivery worker wears a protective face mask as he rides through a sparsely populated Times Square in New York on Friday. Industrial Average fell more than 900 points, ending the week with a 17% loss. The increasingly drastic measures in the U.S. came as gasping patients fi lled the wards of hospitals in Spain and Italy, and the global death toll surpassed 11,000, with the virus gaining footholds in new corners of the world. Italy, the hardest-hit coun- try in Europe, reported 627 new deaths Friday, its big- gest day-to-day rise since the outbreak began, and said new cases also shot up. Italy now has seen over 4,000 deaths — more even than China — and 47,000 infections. The soar- ing numbers came despite a nationwide lockdown. The World Health Orga- nization noted the epidem- ic’s dramatic speed, point- ing out that it took more than three months to reach the fi rst 100,000 confi rmed cases but only 12 days to reach the next 100,000. As of Friday, Johns Hopkins University counted more than 260,000 infections worldwide. Across the U.S., gover- nors and public health offi - cials watched the crisis in Europe with mounting alarm and warned of critical short- ages of ventilators, masks and other protective gear at home. As promised earlier in the week, President Don- ald Trump offi cially invoked emergency wartime authority to try to speed production of such equipment. But while the government has vowed to fi x the botched roll-out of widespread virus testing, laboratories reported serious shortages of test sup- plies such as swabs and chem- ical components. There are “acute, serious shortages across the board” for supplies needed to do the tests, said Eric Blank, of the Association of Public Health Laboratories, which rep- resents state and local health labs. Late Friday, Blank’s group and two other public health organizations recom- mended that testing be scaled back due to “real, immedi- ate, wide-scale shortages.” The groups said only patients with COVID-19 symptoms who are elderly, have high- risk medical conditions or are medical staff should be tested. Countries frantically pre- pared for a deluge of patients in the coming weeks. In Britain, the govern- ment asked 65,000 retired nurses and doctors to return to work. A convention cen- ter and hotels in Madrid were being turned into fi eld hospi- tals for nearly 10,000 patients. France’s military worked to build a makeshift medical center in the hard-hit town of Mulhouse. The U.S. read- ied military hospitals for civil- ian use, and more than 4,000 National Guard members were deployed in 31 states to help distribute food, scrub down surfaces and help in other ways. Trump also announced the closing of the Mexican border to most travel but not trade. 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In New York, people venturing outside will have to stay at least 6 feet apart. And while they will be free to go out to get some exercise to keep their sanity, there will be no “playing basketball with fi ve other people,” Cuomo said. “These provisions will be enforced,” the governor said. “These are not helpful hints.” The Federal Reserve moved Friday to pump huge amounts of cash into the fi nancial system to ease dis- ruptions that have escalated since the viral outbreak. The New York Federal Reserve Bank said it will offer $1 trillion of overnight loans a day through the end of this month to large banks. That is in addition to $1 trillion in 14-day loans it is offering every week. The Trump administration announced Friday that states can cancel federally required school testing this year to pro- tect students and teachers, a measure that some states had requested as they shut down schools over the coronavirus pandemic. Trump also announced that federal student loan holders can get their payments paused for 60 days if they submit a request with their loan ser- vicing company. It adds to Trump’s earlier promise to suspend loan interest during that period, which is being done automatically. restrictions on the Canadian border earlier this week. The income tax fi ling deadline was also moved from April 15 to July 15. “We’re about to enter into a new way of living here in Los Angeles,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said as California went into lockdown. “What we do and how we do it and if we get this right will deter- mine how long this crisis lasts.” The streets of America’s cities were quieter than nor- mal Friday — even in many of those communities not under lockdown — but not empty. 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