A thread to keep track of non-religious shut downs due to the Wuhan Flu.
In Illinois the Governor has ordered all schools, public and private, shut down as of Tuesday March 17. All sit down restaurants, bars and pubs are shut down. Take out is allowed. Public libraries are cancelling events, and some are shutting down.
I just received an e-mail from the Chief Judge in my county that in our Judicial Circuit only emergency cases, felonies, juvenile cases and a few other limited categories will be heard, and all other hearings are cancelled, to be rescheduled once the courts resume normal operation. The courts no longer being in normal operation is unprecedented in my 38 years in the law mines. Much more doubtless to follow, unfortunately. Add your shut downs in the comboxes.
Several Iowa school districts– not ours, at least not yet– and all the St. Patrick’s day parades.
Schools closed for next week.
City owned facilities closed to large crowds. (So no events at the event center, no conventions at the convention center.) Libraries closed. Gov’t offices open for public business, but only 250 ppl in the building at a time. (I wonder how they’re going to enforce that.) Hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, etc. closed to visitors. If you suspect you have the Chinese death cough, call ahead, don’t show up in the doctor’s office/ ER unannounced.
Malls stores movie theaters restaurants still open for now.
9 confirmed cases in South Dakota. No new cases since Thursday or Friday.
Forgot that they closed the indoor public pool too. So I’m stuck home with die Kinder and nothing to do but check email for homework assignments, and maybe go see a movie after. Star Wars 9 is finally in the second run (i.e. “cheap,” i.e. I can afford to take my kids). But they’ll probably want to go to Frozen 2 instead.
According to my son who is in the music industry, all shows and gigs are are cancelled, at least in downstate Michigan. A mall closed, and this has caused one of his friends to consider unemployment compensation. My public library is closed, but doing curb side deliveries if you have checked out books online.
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My sports club closed for a deep clean, but is reopening today with reduced hours. All club run activities are closed, but people may continue with individual workouts and sports. I do not know if the public pool is closed.
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Our Senior Center is closed, but meals on wheels is running.
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I believe all USTA (tennis) tournaments-professional, adult, and juniors are cancelled-or at least severely restricted.
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My two sons were supposed to go to Guatemala, but apparently, Guatemala closed its border to the US.
One thing not closed, thankfully, a local perpetual Adoration Chapel.
The typical shutdowns of schools and certain businesses here in the Carolinas. My employer Neutrons ‘R Us permits us to work from home for the duration. Flights out to the company headquarters on the left coast cancelled for now.
By the way, Illinois has 11 nuclear power plants generating 11,881 MWe of pollution-free electrical power; they will happily remain open. 🙂 The same is true with the Catawba, VC Summer and HB Robinson nuclear power plants in my State of South Carolina. In fact, the two Catawba nukes are pretty close to where we live, so God willing, electricity should not fail. That’s 2310 MWe for the local community. 🙂 No need to worry about keeping the coal trains running, or the gas pipelines pressurized. No worries about clouds covering shiny solar panels or lack of wind idling those twirling wind mill blades. A nuke plant’s uranium fuel cycle lasts two years without re-fueling. 🙂
There are so many places in Ohio closed, it might be easier to say what remains open. All schools, from Kindergarten through college, are closed. All restaurants and bars are closed – take out and delivery still permitted. Governor Dewine will soon be giving the order to close day care centers. Pretty much the entire court system in Columbus is closed – including U.S. District Court – not sure about other areas. Major corporations are having their employees work from home – no more than 50% are allowed at Nationwide and they’re reviewing that to see if they can send more home. Other corporations are following suit. No visitors to care facilities. Dentists and vets are being asked to suspend procedures – we need the supplies. All elective, non-emergency procedures, – are being postponed. Again, we need the supplies. Governor Dewine and his team have implemented amendments to the unemployment benefits rules to help people who have temporarily lost their jobs due to closures. It’s not that they’re trying to stop the virus – it can’t be stopped. They’re trying to flatten the curve of infection so our medical facilities don’t become completely overwhelmed. From what I am seeing and hearing around here, most people are cooperating – one good thing that has come from this is that people are getting to know their neighbors – people are looking beyond the “individual” mindset and reaching out beyond themselves. In the Catholic dioceses in Ohio, the medically compromised have been given a dispensation to attend Sunday Mass in March. All kinds of new rules in effect – I know in my church, they’re wiping down every pew and surface after every Mass. No handshake of peace during Mass, no holy water in the fonts, people asked to put space as much as possible between themselves and others, and voluntary, not mandatory, is the suggestion to receive Communion in the hand. Lots of other things, too numerous to mention here. More closures coming, I’m sure. I have no doubt we’re headed into a statewide quarintine.
The Democrats are going to do everything possible to destroy the US economy, now that they have the perfect excuse. Look for all the blue state governors to follow Pritzker’s lead in the next few days. Then it will of course all be Trump’s fault.
“Trump’s fault.”
And then, when the next Republican is elected President, they’ll all say how much they admire Trump for putting the country’s needs ahead of his own political needs and sacrificing his reelection chances like that. And wonder why the new Republican, who’s one of those bad Republicans, can’t be more like that Good Republican, Donald Trump.
Of course, what they’ll really mean is” we want you to blow up your Presidency to advance our agenda,” just like they always do.
On the virus front: last week was mostly sunny and 15 degrees above average. We got snow on the weekend, the forcast for this week is cloudy and wet and 10 degrees below average. So, typical mid-March on the tall grass prairie. But that’s enough of a swing to trigger the usual round of head colds you’ll see in late fall and early spring. I wonder how many are going to wonder if they’ve contracted the Wuhan woe?
Here in what was once California, our governor has instructed those of us over 65 to self-incarcerate. If he puts his Aunt Nancy under home confinement, I shall comply. Else, not.
dJH, our Adoration Chapel is closed…sigh…
We’re trying to avoid grocery shopping but Weis Markets (our local) has canceled online ordering and pickup (supposedly to release people for restocking). We may try an online grocery delivery service, “Instacart,” which works with a competing grocery chain, Giant. My Good Lady is much opposed to getting fresh stuff anywhere else but where she usually goes,…but we live in difficult times.
PS… in Pennsylvania the state liquor stores have been closed by order of Governor Wolfe…I”m waiting to see the riot in front of our local one as the locals suffer thirst.
Later bulletin: Wolfe has ordered all restaurants and stores in PA (except grocery stores) closed for two weeks.
Everybody taking notes? Because if you ever thought about writing a dystopian novel about a totalitarian tyranny taking over the U.S., or maybe an M. Night Shyamalan-esque thriller screenplay (is it a fascist coup or has the Andromeda Strain really just killed 50 million people?), this is your field research.
@Bob Kurland, Ph.D. Kurland:
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I did not stay that long. I am not one of the regular Adorers, so I usually don’t stay the full hour (I was going to try to work up to it during the summer. ) This time maybe only twenty minutes. I had planned to stay longer, but some elderly people came in (it is almost always the very elderly who come), and in order to maintain “social distancing,” I thought best to leave. The Chapel is not very big at all. So few places exist right now, actually none I can think of, in Michigan we can be in a group. Gov. Gretch has shut down the entire state. I am awaiting to see if we truly need to give up our Pre-Sanctified Liturgies on Wednesday nights (Byz Rite–that would be on the order of our Bishop, who is out of State, but that is the way I read his Eparchy-wide letter posted online).
The Archdiocese of Cincinnati just folded. No Mass or liturgy of any kind through Easter.
https://www.fox19.com/2020/03/16/archdiocese-suspending-masses-through-easter/
All public Masses in the Diocese of Charleston, SC are suspended from March 17 till April 1st. Father Kirby on Twitter called this surreal. He did a lot of planning and preparation for all kinds of activities and adult classes this Lenten season, all shot to hell now. 🙁 I cannot imagine how he feels.
Well, Gov. Gretch has ordered all restaurants, bars, and venues closed. ( Places may continue with, or start, take-out service/drive through.) All fitness centers of any kind. All theatres, movie theaters, and non-native American owned gambling establishments (I assume lotto will go on.) I assume public libraries as well. No gatherings of more than 50 people permitted.
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Oh, Dio of Saginaw is now shut down.
I am definitely not saying the measures taken are not warranted; however, with a population of over three hundred million and less than one hundred dead and less than five thousand infected, do the powers that be known something they have not told us? If so, I wish they would lay it out. What happens when the next virus hits, as there will surely be one. These measures and the reaction are unsustainable in a free nation.
Would a free nation even tolerate these measures? More importantly, would the elected leadership of a free nation, accountable to the voters of that nation contemplate such measures in the first place?
Serious questions. I don’t know the answers.
But I’m fairly certain that if Herself, the Lady MacBeth of Little Rock, the Duchess of Winchester, had won four years ago and was now up for reelection, we wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing on scale we’re presently doing it.
As I mentioned in another post the Arlington Virginia Diocese bishop today cancelled all Masses in church. Weddings and funerals can continue but only family may attend. Adoration is allowed in church but only 10 people may attend at a time and a porter must be present. The churches must continue to disinfect. No confession and no Confirmation. For now no Holy Week and Easter services. Listen on the radio or watch Masses online or on cable.
Would a free nation even tolerate these measures? More importantly, would the elected leadership of a free nation, accountable to the voters of that nation contemplate such measures in the first place?
The answers are not for long, and yes, until the voters become enraged, which I think will be coming in April of this year, especially if the death toll remains paltry.
The Diocese of Harrisburg has now suspended Masses and asked that all churches and chapels be closed. Online grocery shopping from our local chain (Weis) and from Walmart has been suspended to enable restocking (as per customer service inquiries).
Meanwhile in Springfield IL, all confirmations and First Communions have been called off for the rest of this year — not only for public health reasons but also because canceling 2 or 3 weeks worth of these events had such a cascading effect on the remainder of the bishop’s schedule that now it has to be entirely reworked. (The diocese recently restored the traditional order of confirmation BEFORE first communion, both to be administered in 3rd grade, but there are still a lot of kids in the 4th-9th grades that have to catch up on their confirmations.)
Sometime during the night Ohio “postponed” our primary until June 2.
Ernst-
there’s stuff like this facebook page where they’re collecting all kinds of free or cheap stuff to do at home with the schools closed.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/201295784303633
(Don’t need an account to look.)
True story: we got an email from the school district with a link to a site with “enrichment” activities for the students to do during their absence from class. All optional of course.
“Enrichment.” Isn’t that what zoo keepers call the activities they think up for the animals?
Bishop Zubik has shut down the Diocese of Pittsburgh. However, the Eastern Catholic parishes in the area remain open.
Governor Noem just extended the school closure in South Dakota. for an additional week.
Eparchy of Parma (encompasing at least Ohio and Michigan) is mostly shut down. Sunday Liturgy only-and not every parish. No Wednesday Pre-Sanctified Liturgy (think prayer service with Communion). No Easter bake sales, no CCD, no gatherings, etc.