Events canceled amid dire warnings
Health officials urge ‘assertive actions’ to limit potential exposure
As the number of coronavirus cases continues to climb in California and around the world Friday, public health officials called for increasingly drastic measures in the face of the potentially lethal disease, urging people to avoid large gatherings and business meetings and discouraging even casual human contact in an attempt to slow the virus’s spread.
“COVID-19 is spreading in our community, the extent of which is unclear. It has likely been spreading for weeks, perhaps months,” San Mateo County Health Officer Scott Morrow said, laying out in blunt terms the potential for the virus to disrupt daily life. “We now all need to take assertive actions to inhibit the spread of this new virus.”
“How the world operates during a pandemic is different from how the world operates normally,” Morrow added. “This is not business as usual.”
Statewide, the total number of coronavirus cases is now 82, with at least one confirmed death. Four new coronavirus cases were confirmed Friday in Santa Clara County, bringing the total to 24 — the highest of any county in the state. Officials in Contra Costa County also reported three new cases, including two people who tested positive after traveling aboard the Grand Princess cruise ship that traveled between San Francisco and Mexico last month and is now being quarantined off the coast of Northern California.
Meanwhile, the coronavirus continues to spread in other states, including Texas, where organizers called off South by Southwest, the massive music and technology festival in Austin that had been scheduled to take place later this month. In Washington state, which has reported the highest number of coronavirus deaths in the U.S., school administrators have canceled in-person classes at the University of Washington and Seattle University.
Locally, San Francisco on Friday became the latest community to ask organizers to cancel large gatherings such as sporting events, concerts and conventions, a day after Santa Clara and San Mateo counties issued the same warning.
“I understand that this is a disruptive situation,” Grant Colfax, director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, said at an
evening news conference. “But our focus today is really on the public health. We really need to disrupt social engagement as much as we can right now to avoid a transmission of coronavirus.”
Contra Costa County officials issued a slightly less severe warning, urging that people over 50 and those with certain medical conditions should “avoid mass gatherings, such as parades, sporting events or concerts.”
The disruptions to normal life that health officials have warned about have also become clear, with organizers canceling events large and small, and businesses asking workers to stay home in an effort to limit potential exposure.
Joining employers in the Seattle area who have asked workers not to come to their offices, Facebook and Apple began telling Bay Area employees to work from home if possible on Friday. Facebook also has recommended that its employees cancel all business travel within and outside of the Bay Area and is canceling all of its scheduled events in the region.
In San Jose, officials declared a local emergency as part of their response to the virus and restricted nonessential travel by city employees through the end of April. The city is also changing its senior nutrition program to be based on boxed meals taken to go.
Despite those warnings, the Golden State Warriors, San Jose Sharks and San Jose Earthquakes all have said their home games scheduled for this weekend will go on as normal.
Still, cancellations continued for community events big and small around the Bay Area. An environmental job fair at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, an event for University of Pennsylvania
law school alumni in San Francisco, the San Jose Museum of Art’s First Friday program and a fundraiser for performing arts programs at Willow Glen schools all were postponed or called off.
The city of Santa Clara announced that it had postponed civic events planned through at least March 15, including a family movie night and “Junior Olympics,” while warning that more events could be delayed. The city’s library also has canceled all programs through March 15, and its senior center was doing the same for everything but a nutrition program.
Illustrating how the virus could change the look and feel of life in the Bay Area over the coming weeks and months, Santa Clara officials also told residents Friday that they should be ready to see police officers wearing “masks, gloves and other gear” to reduce their risk of contracting the virus.
“While the public may be accustomed to fire personnel wearing (personal protective equipment), it may seem new for the community to see police officers wearing such protective gear,” city officials wrote in a statement.
And public health warnings — to regularly your wash hands, cover coughs and sneezes, avoid touching your face and stay home if you’re feeling sick — even extended to personal interactions.
“Shaking hands while greeting others is not considered socially acceptable as we all work together to reduce the transmission of COVID-19,” Santa Clara officials wrote.