Local leaders take harder line

Florida bars closed for 30 days; San Franciscans stay home

Nearly 7 million people in the San Francisco area were all but confined to their homes Tuesday, while Florida put a damper on spring break and St. Patrick’s Day by ordering the closing of all bars, as state and local officials took an increasingly hard line against the coronavirus.

Ohio canceled its presidential primary hours before the polls were to open, but three other states pressed ahead with their elections, recommending such precautions as putting tape on the floor to keep voters a safe distance apart.

On Wall Street, stocks bounced around in early trading, one day after the worst market loss since the Black Monday crash of 1987.

With the economy grinding to a halt, the White House proposed a roughly $850 billion rescue package — a sweeping stimulus not seen since the Great Recession of 2008 — and called for its rapid approval.

It would provide relief for small businesses, $50 billion for the airline industry and a big tax cut for wage-earners, said two people familiar with the request who described it on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.

“If we do this right, our country and the world, frankly, but our country can be rolling again pretty quickly,” President Donald Trump said.

Officials in six San Francisco Bay Area counties issued a “shelter-inplace” order that went into effect Tuesday, requiring most residents to stay inside and venture out only for food, medicine or exercise for three weeks.

“It’s really a scary situation for us because if we don’t work, we don’t eat,” lamented Miguel Aguirre, a janitor at San Francisco’s Boys and Girls Club.

Coronavirus infections across the country reached about 5,200, and the death toll climbed to at least 97, with more than half of the dead from Washington state. Worldwide, more than 7,300 have died.

Over the past day, new and more urgent warnings have come from the White House, which has called on Americans not to gather in groups of more than 10 and advised older people to stay home.

States’ responses varied.

While beaches on Florida’s Gulf Coast were still open, and at least one was full of spring breakers, Gov. Ron Desantis ordered all the state’s bars and nightclubs closed for 30 days and asked Florida’s university system to send students home.

Desantis has said he would leave beach restrictions up to local authorities.

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott has left many decisions up to local governments. Unlike other governors of heavily populated states, Abbott has not made explicit calls for limiting mass gatherings.