Cleaned out on Aisle 3
As anxiety over the virus grows, supermarkets are swarmed and streets and workplaces are emptied
With supermarkets overrun, workplaces clearing out and coronavirus spreading deeper into communities, California officials desperately attempted to slow the virus with new restrictions and a unified message: social distancing.
Calling the outbreak “one of the most historic public health challenges of our time,” the health officer for Silicon Valley has issued a new aggressive ban on public gatherings — restricting gatherings of 35 or more unless organizers warn attendees that it poses a heightened risk of infection and banning all public and private gatherings of 100 or more. Other counties canceled events and introduced new restrictions.
The state now reports 247 confirmed cases and six deaths, with new cases being tallied every few hours. But officials say many more have the virus but have not yet been tested.
Los Angeles County Public Health Department officials confirmed eight new cases of the virus, bringing the total to 40, as community spread intensified.
Three of those cases are thought to be the result of community transmission, as the source of exposure is unknown. Two of the individuals are hospitalized, Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer said. Officials say they expect those cases to expand significantly as more people get tested. Ferrer said L.A. County got more test kits this week, and noted that initial testing limitations have made estimates difficult to gather.
Orange County on Friday reported three suspected coronavirus cases, bringing its total to nine. The new tally came as the Orange County superintendent of schools said he supported suspending all school operations for at least two weeks.
Perhaps the greatest symbol of concern over the virus was at supermarkets, where many shelves were empty amid panic buying.
The Ralphs parking lot in Koreatown on Friday morning looked like a crowded DMV office. Though parking spots were available, gridtrip. lock reigned as motorists drove in the wrong direction, blocked pathways and eased slowly around pedestrians walking every which way.
Inside, the supermarket off 3rd Street and Vermont Avenue was a hive of activity.
As three cashiers rang up purchases, dozens of customers waited in long queues that snaked through the market, past the fruit and vegetable displays and down the condiment and milk aisles. Many of them pushed shopping carts loaded with gallon jugs of water, stacks of frozen meat and cases of ramen noodles.
One overflowing cart was being pushed by two friends preparing to have their kids home from school for the rest of the month.
“I’ve been here, to Vons across the street, we’ve been to Target,” said Monica Boyd, 30, whose teenage son will be one of thousands across the county staying home Monday. “I had friends ask me to get them food because they’re in the Valley and they’re saying everything is kind of cleaned out down there. So this is a combination of me getting groceries for friends and mostly for my kid.”
Boyd’s friend, Shulanda Rush, 28, joined her for the A property manager in Koreatown, Rush said her 5year-old daughter may have to stay with the girl’s father for the next few weeks because he has more family support to care for her during the workweek.
The friends knew that people were cleaning out store shelves, but it still surprised them to see it in person. Most of the ramen in the store was gone. So was the powdered milk, most of the water, toilet paper, dried pasta, rice and allergy medication. It was more packed than a pre-Super Bowl, Cinco de Mayo, Thanksgiving or Fourth of July shopping rush.
“I’m not really worried about what’s going on, I think it scares me more that people are panicking, so it’s not business as usual,” Boyd said. “They’re just like, ‘Let’s come and buy every ... thing.’ ”
“I walked here last night to get allergy medicine and it was all gone. Allergy medicine does not block viruses. What is happening here?” she said in exasperation. “I just think it’s ridiculous in a general sense. The fact that there’s no toilet paper is insane. I don’t understand how that is going to save you from anything.”