SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA
SAN FRANCISCO’S EARLY ACTION may have saved it from becoming an epicenter of the virus: Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency in late February, and on March 16th, the Bay
Area was the first in the nation to issue a shelter-in-place order. The Hwangs — Liam, 7, with sister Loghan, 10, mother Kim Ng, and father Brian (not pictured) — are learning how to juggle home-schooling and conference calls. “Sometimes we can be in the midst of an important meeting, but we need to resolve a conflict or steer the children in the right direction,” says
Ng. “Although we’re in this new reality, we feel fortunate that we can be safe in our home.” Liam says he misses his friends and teachers, but is enjoying the time away. “My favorite part is that I can cuddle my family whenever I want,” he says.
weren’t taking the pandemic seriously when photographer Zack Wittman traveled around Florida. “People who were willing to break the rules to go to the beach (right) were also not very concerned with maintaining social distancing,” he says of Pass-a-Grille, near Tampa. “I would take a step back and they would take a step closer.” Hundreds of activities in the Villages, a retirement community north of Orlando, were suspended, but a country club was still open for golf (bottom left). “I’ve been wearing a mask and gloves since last week,” says Sylvia Stead, a 75-year-old living in the Villages. “People laugh at me for it, but I laugh at them, too. I tell them I’ll visit them in the hospital.”
Kelly Shrein said goodbye to her students at Northwood ABC Elementary School in Anchorage before spring break, she assumed she would see them in a week. Then schools were shut down until May 1st to help stop the spread of the virus. “I felt like I didn’t get to say goodbye,” Shrein says. So she drove to her students’ houses to do it from afar, sending air hugs and hollering from her SUV that they should keep reading. Student Baeli Romer-Symbol (above) greeted her with a sign saying, “I Miss You.” Alaska had the country’s lowest COVID-19 case count in March, but nearly half of them were in Anchorage, the glacier-surrounded city home to more than 250,000 people.
To help keep their numbers low, several regional hospitals joined together to start a drive-through testing site (right), where nurses huddled around space heaters to keep warm when they weren’t busy, which wasn’t often. “It was a real steady stream the entire time I was there,” says photographer Ash Adams. “I had to be in the full hazmat suit; all my gear was scrubbed. And I maintained a six-foot distance. There were a lot of people making sure I was safe.” Anchorage also converted the state’s largest entertainment venue, the Sullivan Arena, into a homeless shelter, which had served 737 people as of March 30th. “It seems like there’s a coming together of sorts surrounding this issue,” says Adams.
(top right) are expecting their first child, a boy, in July. “She has to go to the doctor alone,” Sam Trotter, who photographed the couple, says. “John has to drop her off outside and FaceTime in to be there.” Tokes Smoke Shop (above) is across the street from an apartment building filled with seniors in the neighborhood of Leimert Park. Owner Tracy Lewis and her husband, Kevin, ferry items across Crenshaw Boulevard so older folks don’t have to leave their homes. “There is something different in the air, but then there is not,” says Trotter. “There were people at the Korean Bell of Friendship flying kites, groups walking around, and scores of motorcycles. But then again, for the most part, the streets were empty.”