Americans brace for new life of growing dread

Millions of Americans braced for the week ahead with no school for their children for many days to come, no clue how to effectively do their jobs without child care, and a growing sense of dread about how to stay safe and sane amid the relentless spread of the coronavirus.

Are play dates for the kids OK? How do you stock up on supplies when supermarket shelves are bare? How do you pay the bills when your work hours have been cut? Is it safe to go to the gym? And how do you plan for the future with no idea what it holds?

Tens of millions of students nationwide have been sent home from school amid a wave of closings that include all of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Oregon, Washington, Florida and Illinois, along with big-city districts like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

The disruptions came as government and hospital leaders took new measures to contain an outbreak that has sickened more than 150,000 people worldwide and killed about 5,800, with thousands of new cases being confirmed every day.

“We have not reached our peak,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health. “We will see more cases, and we will see more suffering and death.”

Many working parents are scrambling to find child care, even if they are being allowed to work from home. The child care needs are especially dire for the legions of nurses, hospital and health care workers across the country who need to be on the job to deal with the crisis.

Governors drew up emergency plans to find care for those workers, equating it to a wartime effort.

“I would put this as a World War II-capacity day care for our public health workers, because we’re going to need every single body we can get,” said Oregon Gov. Kate Brown.

The cascade of closings upended weekend routines for countless mothers and fathers. Little League and other sports were canceled. Parks were closed. Play dates were upended. The size of the crowd at a public library in suburban Portland rivaled that of the neighborhood Costco as parents scrambled to stockpile books for children.

While some people were opting to isolate themselves, not everyone was ready to put their lives on hold.

Despite the cancellation of St. Patrick’s Day parades around the country and pleas to curtail public gatherings, pub celebrations continued in many places. In Chicago, that prompted an angry rebuke from Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

“If you are young and healthy, listen up: We need you to follow social distancing, too,” he said, urging partygoers to go home.