April 19 COVID-19 Update

We just finished our 6th week of lockdown with over 200,000 worldwide deaths and 2,971,477 confirmed cases worldwide.

In response, there have been protests across the US to end the lockdown, ranging from those who think the virus is a hoax to those who are willing to risk it and just want to get back to work.

President Trump has been inconsistent in his messages about the virus: originally denying its severity, then calling it a hoax by the democrats. Recently he said he acted quickly to respond but that it's also a Chinese conspiracy.  The response to the pandemic has been largely handled on the state level: some with stricter regulations than others.

With many jobs lost during the lockdown Congress passed legislation to send out stimulus checks to everyone across the US and those have started arriving; ours came last week.

Lockdown

This week Aubrey had her one month checkup.

She has gained a few ounces and is up to 7 lb. 10 oz.

As for COVID-19 news, at the beginning of the week bars, pubs, and restaurants were closed except for drive-through/takeout.  Public places and public events were all cancelled/off limits.  Now we are in full lockdown state-wide, with other states under lockdown as well.  Throughout California all non-essential businesses are closed.  Schools are all closed.  Stay home except for essential outings like seeking medical help or food.

We are now fully converted over to virtual learning.  Evan and Hailey log in to class and their teachers teach the whole day as normal, just virtually.  Since I'm on paternity leave, I am able to help the kids stay on task and make sure they get their work done.

It's certainly an adjustment for us all, but I'm glad that WISH is so on top of things. They took 1 day off last Friday for the faculty to prepare for this new method of having school and we have transitioned pretty smoothly.  There is talk of schools staying closed till June.

On Monday businesses throughout the state closed down; my whole studio is now closed and working from home.  I'm still on leave till April 20 so we'll see how things go over this next month then I'll see about picking up my work computer and all that if we're still closed down.

Currently the California lockdown is set for a month, until April 19.  This week the guidelines for the lockdown have been rolling out and the amount of people that can get together has changed day to day.  First, we were limited to groups of 250, then it became a maximum of 12, until finally we were limited to just the immediate household.  Social distancing has been instituted, to keep people 6 feet apart from one another.  Violations are subject to a $200 fine.

17 states, including California (which has 1,700 cases), are on lockdown.  New York (with 15,000 cases) just instituted their lockdown.  Other states throughout the country like Washington State (which has more cases than California: 2,000 cases), are still not on lockdown.  Just yesterday the UK was added to the US travel ban, with cases rising there.

The elderly and sick are the most at risk but there have been reports of young people and children being hospitalized by the virus and even dying.