© Reuters / Mike Blake
"Everyone is required to stay home except to get food, care for a relative or friend, get necessary health care, or go to an essential job," reads a statement on California's coronavirus response website, issued following Newsom's order. "If you go out, keep at least 6 feet of distance."
Businesses to remain open during the lockdown include banks, pharmacies, gas stations, as well as grocery stores and restaurants - though the latter will be confined to carry-out and delivery only.
Newsom expressed concern during a presser on Thursday night that tens of thousands of patients could soon swarm California's hospitals as the disease rapidly spreads across the state, putting healthcare facilities far beyond capacity. He earlier projected that some 56 percent of the state's residents - or over 25 million people - could contract the illness within eight weeks' time.
More than 1,000 Californians have contracted the coronavirus, with 18 deaths, as fatalities nationwide soar to over 200, out of more than 14,000 confirmed cases. The disease toll has climbed rapidly over the last week in the US, with thousands of new infections emerging in the space of a few days.
Comment: 18 deaths, and the result is the state telling people they can't leave their homes. The hysteria continues.
The governor has now called on US President Donald Trump to deploy a Navy hospital vessel, the USNS Mercy, suggesting it be docked at a port in Los Angeles to help the sprawling metropolis keep up with the influx of new patients.
As the new sweeping travel restrictions were announced in California, administration officials in Washington are mulling a closure of the US-Mexico border to stem the transmission of the illness, which could be announced as early as Friday, according to Reuters. The decision would mirror an earlier move to close the border between the US and Canada to nonessential travel announced on Wednesday.
Small gains for stocks after drastic plunge, but Bank of America declares recession
© Reuters / Lucas JacksonA trader wears a face mask on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, March 19, 2020
The Dow Jones gained 0.96 percent on Thursday, closing at just over 20,000 points. The NASDAQ Composite closed up 2.3 percent, while the S&P 500 finished up 0.47 percent.
These gains, however, could partly be driven by speculation. According to regulatory filings, billionaire investors like Warren Buffet and Carlos Slim have all spent hundreds of millions of dollars snapping up cheap stocks lately, a move that could have inspired optimism in smaller investors. Likewise, the uptick could represent the market correcting itself, as the finite duration of the coronavirus pandemic becomes apparent.
"Financial markets, in particular stock exchanges, tend to view uncertainty more negatively than bad news. For that reason, they almost always overestimate the impact of bad news and correct that overshot as the facts surrounding a situation become clearer," Peter C. Earle, research fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research, previously told RT.
Though few in government will publicly use the dreaded 'R' word just yet, Bank of America chief economist, Michelle Meyer, circulated a note to her clients earlier on Thursday "declaring that the economy has fallen into a recession," CNBC reported.
"Jobs will be lost, wealth will be destroyed and confidence depressed," the letter continued, with Meyer adding that she expects the US economy to contract by 12 percent in the second quarter of the year, and the unemployment rate to nearly double.
Meyer called on the government to throw Wall Street more money to avert the coming disaster. "There should be no upper bound for the size of the stimulus," she wrote.
Comment: While the majority of the country is confined to their homes wondering how they'll make ends meet, a one-percenter is asking for the government to bail out Wall Street (again). These people are just completely tone-deaf.
Saudi Arabia limits worship at Mecca & Medina mosques, risking tighter crowds amid coronavirus pandemic
© Reuters / Zohra BensemraGrand mosque in Mecca
The Mecca and Medina mosques are the only two worship sites still open for prayers in Saudi Arabia. The move to restrict worship there as well comes as the desert kingdom attempts to slow the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus.
Congregational and Friday prayers have been suspended at every single other mosque in Saudi Arabia, an unprecedented move for the devout country.
'Inhumane & reckless': Twitter silences Venezuela's anti-coronavirus chief as IMF denies emergency loan
Amid crushing US sanctions and IMF rejection already making Venezuela's struggle with Covid-19 difficult, Twitter now seems to have hobbled the country's vice-president and head of coronavirus response, Delcy Rodriguez.
Both the personal and the official Twitter account belonging to Rodriguez were "temporarily restricted" on Thursday over "unusual activity," with old tweets still visible to those who choose to view them, but no new tweets available after Wednesday.
Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza called it an "inhumane and reckless" gesture by Twitter, as Rodriguez leads the presidential commission handling the country's coronavirus response and this was depriving the Venezuelan people of the information necessary to handle the pandemic.
NASA shuts down 2 more rocket facilities after engineer tests positive for Covid-19, in 'major setback' to 2024 moon flight hopes
NASA has announced the closure of two rocket production and testing centers after an engineer at one facility contracted the coronavirus, potentially shattering the ambitious dream of a manned Moon mission in 2024.
Both the Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi and the Michoud Assembly Facility about 40 miles away in New Orleans will halt operations, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement on Thursday. The move was called for by "Stage 4" of NASA's disaster response guidelines, which recommend full closures for facilities under emergency conditions.
Cannes Film Festival postponed to end of June over coronavirus
The organizers of France's Cannes Film Festival have finally postponed the two-week cinema event until the end of June, ending weeks of speculation over the star-studded affair which has never been postponed in its history.
The festival, originally scheduled for May 12 to 23, has been tentatively moved to the end of June into July, but may be postponed even further, organizers announced on Thursday, as France remains under lockdown and the coronavirus death toll in the country ticks up to 372.
Texas court stays second execution in a week 'because of coronavirus'
A Texas appeals court has issued a 60-day stay of execution for convicted murderer Tracy Beatty, citing the "enormous resources" needed to deal with the coronavirus crisis - its second such decision this week.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals pressed pause on Beatty's execution on Thursday, explaining in its decision that "the current health crisis and the enormous resources needed to address that emergency" necessitated waiting 60 days before setting a new date. Beatty was convicted and sentenced to death 15 years ago for killing his mother and burying her in his backyard, and was due to be executed next week.
Beatty's lawyer filed to halt the execution on Monday, citing the "unprecedented proportions" of the pandemic, which has killed three people in Texas and infected at least 95. He was apparently inspired by a similar decision made earlier that day to stay the execution of fellow death-row inmate John Hummel, who was sentenced to death in 2011 after killing his pregnant wife, his father in law, and his 5-year-old daughter and setting their house on fire to cover up the crime.
Chill, Netflix to cut European traffic after EU said it overloads internet during Covid-19 quarantine
Movie and TV streaming service Netflix says it will cut its bit rates across Europe by a quarter to ease the internet burden as coronavirus quarantines have forced millions of people to stay home all day.
Many more people than usual are now working from home, thanks to virus-limiting restrictions and lockdowns, while the mass closure of schools and colleges also means more pressure on internet providers from younger service users.
Netflix's move comes after the EU's Internal Markets Commissioner Thierry Breton urged the service to help address the additional strain on internet services.
Reader Comments
I saw the picture above saying "Temp Closed", and automatically thought, 'Darn! Although it looks a little different, that sure looks like the movie theater on PCH in Encinitas.
While the above article is about Cal., it doesn't say where it was taken and there's got to be a lot of similar looking ones in the state, . . . but it felt right so I did a quick search of what info is given above: "Mike Blake" "temp closed".
Result: That's it! Another article details the source: "Health News March 18, 2020 / 9:05 PM / a day ago Some 60,000 California homeless could get coronavirus in coming weeks, governor says Dan Whitcomb Great times, great memories, and I have some crazy great stories which occurred there. See the AB.
(Back when I lived there, there weren't homeless folks hanging out under the eaves. )
RC