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My stepson's school, Denison University in Granville, Ohio, has extended spring break from March 16 to April 3 ("at the least") and may opt for "remote learning" for the rest of the semester. My wife is driving out there Friday to pick him up; earlier he'd paid for a plane ticket ( non-refundable) from Columbus to Chicago, but we'll eat that.

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In Italy the situation isn’t fun.

Basically there’s a curfew after six pm: restaurants and bar closed, you have to show to authority a valid reason to be out.

No sports events, museums and gyms closed, concerts and exhibitions cancelled. Even funerals and weddings have to respect strict rules.

You can’t travel unless for specific working reasons.

Intensive care places in hospitals are overcrowded.

Not fun at all.

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Just now, porcy62 said:

In Italy the situation isn’t fun.

Basically there’s a curfew after six pm: restaurants and bar closed, you have to show to authority a valid reason to be out.

No sports events, museums and gyms closed, concerts and exhibitions cancelled. Even funerals and weddings have to respect strict rules.

You can’t travel unless for specific working reasons.

Intensive care places in hospitals are overcrowded.

Not fun at all.

Be well my friend.

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8 minutes ago, porcy62 said:

In Italy the situation isn’t fun.

Basically there’s a curfew after six pm: restaurants and bar closed, you have to show to authority a valid reason to be out.

No sports events, museums and gyms closed, concerts and exhibitions cancelled. Even funerals and weddings have to respect strict rules.

You can’t travel unless for specific working reasons.

Intensive care places in hospitals are overcrowded.

Not fun at all.

I can imagine. Stay well, as Chuck said...and be safe. 

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I was supposed to attend AWP (https://www.awpwriter.org/awp_conference/) in San Antonio last week. I had to cancel for other reasons (financial, mostly). Got then to sit back and watch as other writers started cancelling en masse beginning last Monday. Conference organizers then met with city officials to assess the threat level, decided to move forward, then had their newly minted Co-Executive Director resign in protest. Best estimates suggests 5-6K registered attendees stayed home; AWP attendance averages 10-12K. Lots of photos in my social feed of half-empty exhibition booths and conference sessions. https://therivardreport.com/thousands-write-off-san-antonio-conference-over-coronavirus-concerns/

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I am supposed to go visit my Dad in St. Louis the end of this month, but I’m about 95% sure I’m going to postpone the trip until May or June.

The next 2 weeks and beyond are really going to reveal the depth of the situation here in the US (however deep it goes).  Not trying to be doomsday-ist about things, but I think the cat’s probably more than out of the bag here than most people realize yet. I hope I’m wrong.

My Dad is 92, and generally in good health (or at least none of his ongoing medical issues would predispose him to Covid19 hitting him especially hard). But at 92, who knows?

Certainly at 92, this thing is going to hit my Dad’s age cohort hard; harder than any other generation.

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All my spring talks have been postponed until next academic year. 5 more cases in Wake County in the last day or so, and I fully expecting the NC system to go online teaching for the rest of the semester.

Rooster_Ties, I share your concern. We've known about this since January and this is where the testing stands:

corona-testing.jpg (39.66KiB)

We're about to be massively overburdened, I suspect. Is anyone surprised, given the anti-science yahoos in charge?

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NYC is such a massive city, but I'm kinda shocked more isn't on lockdown thus far. It would be smart to do so. My work is still open although it's a small office and has little public interaction. Would not be surprised if things like the WFMU record convention are postponed; Vision Festival is in May so things will probably/hopefully look less dire by then. Hard to say.

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1 hour ago, Brad said:

I can imagine. Stay well, as Chuck said...and be safe. 

The most disturbing thing is to keep a physical distance from other people: no shaking hand, no hugs, no kiss, because you can be dangerous to others or others can be dangerous for you. I mean when I meet a friend or even I am introduced to a stranger I usually touch him/her. Dreadful situation.

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9 hours ago, GA Russell said:

Best wishes, porcy!

And now the North Carolina governor has declared a state of emergency.  I cannot guess whether this is medically necessary or mere politics.  He is up for re-election this year.

I think they governors have been doing this to make giving aid easier to those who need it. 

9 hours ago, porcy62 said:

The most disturbing thing is to keep a physical distance from other people: no shaking hand, no hugs, no kiss, because you can be dangerous to others or others can be dangerous for you. I mean when I meet a friend or even I am introduced to a stranger I usually touch him/her. Dreadful situation.

I’m trying to limit going out to places such as the grocery store and as soon as I get back in the car I use the sanitizer. 

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Many cases in this area and elsewhere are being traced back to a Biogen conference that was held recently in Boston.  The St. Patrick's Day parade in Boston has been cancelled.  Harvard and MIT are sending students home for spring break and telling them not to come back until the fall.  Massachusetts has declared a state of emergency, although it's not clear what that really means at this stage.

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Life is going to be more difficult to cope with these next months.

Hoping to have thé people in charge will be taking the right décisions.  Glad we have several knowledgeable ones over here.

Now there are some saying  that the annual Tour de France race may be postponed. Damn! This is getting serious...

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We have at least seven cases in my county, and there are issues from a doctor working in my township at a large children's hospital facility  who had been overseas.  Our school district was closed yesterday, reopened today.   One large local university (West Chester) cancelled classroom classes. I already have airplane tickets, car rental, AirBnb reservation to take my wife, daughter, and grandson to see my parents (aged 90 and 86) in Florida (Lakewood Ranch, between Sarasota and Bradenton) late April.  Not sure yet what to do there.   I don't want to kill my parents, yet this is likely the only chance for them to meet their great grandson.  I'm also potentially out $1500-2000 in nonrefundable costs (I haven't actually confirmed the details) if I cancel, but that's a minor concern compared to the other factors.  We'll see how it rides out.  About 1500-2000 people in my workplace, no action here yet, though other large companies in the area are making at least contingency plans for dealing with the outbreak.

https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-covid19-childrens-hospital-philadelphia-cardiologist-penn-medicine-20200310.html

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I teach at a community college near Cleveland.  I think nearly all the colleges in the state cancelled starting yesterday, including mine.  We are just on the verge of spring break anyway, but chances are the rest of the term will be cancelled in terms of on-campus.  But they want everything (or nearly everything) to convert to online, which is not hard for me.

It looks like everything will be deeply affected.  Not good for so many businesses, but I've never seen a crisis like this.

 

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