latimes--2020-03-14--Two San Diego college students test positive for COVID-19

San Diego State University officials announced late Friday that a student who recently studied abroad in Italy , a hot spot for COVID-19 , has tested positive for the coronavirus .
A University of San Diego graduate student living off campus has also tested positive but has not exposed anybody else to the novel coronavirus , according to a statement from USD .
Officials from the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency notified SDSU of the positive test Friday evening and have assured university officials “ that the risk to the campus community remains low , ” according @ @ @ @ @ @ @ student “ recently returned to this area ” after studying in Italy , but is currently self-isolating at his permanent residence outside of the county .
“ The student visited two campus offices for a brief period of time , and did not attend any classes , ” according to a statement attributed to SDSU president Adela de la Torre and Dr. Rory Brening , the interim medical director of SDSU student health services .
“ The student has had very little interaction with any on campus students , faculty and staff , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ His three housemates have no symptoms , and self-quarantined in accordance with the ( Centers for Disease Control ’ s ) guidelines.
” University officials said they have already started contacting those on campus believed to have had contact with the student .
Those people will be told to self-quarantine .
School officials have also ordered a “ thorough , hospital-grade cleaning of the two campus offices where the student briefly visited.
” “ We are supporting the student and off-campus housemates , ensuring that they have the resources they need , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the statement .
“ We wish our student well during recovery.
” SDSU officials are also asking students returning from affected areas to self-quarantine for 14 days .
As for the USD graduate student , campus officials provided few details of the positive test Friday night , but and sent out a campus-wide notice saying they ’ ve consulted with county health officials on the matter .
“ They have informed us that based on the circumstances surrounding this confirmed case , no individuals on our campus have been exposed by this graduate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said in a statement .
It was not immediately clear if the student was one of the three new COVID-19 cases that county health officials announced Friday evening .
Those new cases were a man in his 40s who was hospitalized and in isolation after he traveled to New York and Philadelphia , a man in his 30s who was in isolation at home after he traveled to Chicago and a woman in her 70s who is at home in isolation .
“ Please know that we are taking all recommended preventative measures @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Diego County Public Health Department and other health agencies to coordinate our activities , ” USD officials said .
Officials said the campus community can keep up with all COVID-19-related news at USD ’ s dedicated coronavirus website at sandiego.edu/coronavirus/

Students leave Hepner Hall and other buildings on the campus of San Diego State University, flowing onto the Campanile Walkway.
San Diego State University officials announced late Friday that a student who recently studied abroad in Italy, a hot spot for COVID-19, has tested positive for the coronavirus.
A University of San Diego graduate student living off campus has also tested positive but has not exposed anybody else to the novel coronavirus, according to a statement from USD.
Officials from the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency notified SDSU of the positive test Friday evening and have assured university officials “that the risk to the campus community remains low,” according to a statement from SDSU.
The student “recently returned to this area” after studying in Italy, but is currently self-isolating at his permanent residence outside of the county.
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“The student visited two campus offices for a brief period of time, and did not attend any classes,” according to a statement attributed to SDSU president Adela de la Torre and Dr. Rory Brening, the interim medical director of SDSU student health services.
“The student has had very little interaction with any on campus students, faculty and staff,” according to the statement. “His three housemates have no symptoms, and self-quarantined in accordance with the (Centers for Disease Control’s) guidelines.”
University officials said they have already started contacting those on campus believed to have had contact with the student. Those people will be told to self-quarantine. School officials have also ordered a “thorough, hospital-grade cleaning of the two campus offices where the student briefly visited.”
“We are supporting the student and off-campus housemates, ensuring that they have the resources they need,” de la Torre and Brening said in the statement. “We wish our student well during recovery.”
SDSU officials are also asking students returning from affected areas to self-quarantine for 14 days.
As for the USD graduate student, campus officials provided few details of the positive test Friday night, but released a statement and sent out a campus-wide notice saying they’ve consulted with county health officials on the matter.
“They have informed us that based on the circumstances surrounding this confirmed case, no individuals on our campus have been exposed by this graduate student to COVID-19,” USD officials said in a statement.
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It was not immediately clear if the student was one of the three new COVID-19 cases that county health officials announced Friday evening.
Those new cases were a man in his 40s who was hospitalized and in isolation after he traveled to New York and Philadelphia, a man in his 30s who was in isolation at home after he traveled to Chicago and a woman in her 70s who is at home in isolation.
“Please know that we are taking all recommended preventative measures and are working closely with the San Diego County Public Health Department and other health agencies to coordinate our activities,” USD officials said.
Officials said the campus community can keep up with all COVID-19-related news at USD’s dedicated coronavirus website at sandiego.edu/coronavirus/
Riggins writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.


latimes--2020-03-14--Another group of homeless moms and families are taking over a house — this time in L.A.

Weeks after a group of homeless mothers took over a vacant house in Oakland and managed to keep it , another group of moms is trying to do the same in Los Angeles .
On Saturday morning , the protesters and their families moved into a two-bedroom bungalow in El Sereno .
They say they plan to remain indefinitely and potentially take over more houses .
They are calling on state and local governments to use all publicly owned vacant homes , libraries , recreation centers and other properties to house people immediately .
They say the the region ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the threat of the novel coronavirus pushed them to act .
“ I am a mother of two daughters .
I need a home , ” said Martha Escudero , 42 , who has spent the last 18 months living on couches with friends and family members in neighborhoods across East Los Angeles .
“ There ’ s these homes that are vacant and they belong to the community.
” Escudero and her family moved into the house with Ruby Gordillo , 33 , and Gordillo ’ s three children .
The Gordillos @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Pico-Union .
Joining the two families in the El Sereno home is Benito Flores , 64 , a welder who had been living in his van .
Like the Moms 4 Housing group in Oakland , the protesters in L.A. are receiving assistance from the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment , an organizing group that ’ s advocated for state measures to expand rent control and other tenant protections .
But unlike in Oakland , where the mothers successfully pressured Wedgewood Inc. of Redondo Beach to sell a vacant home that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ flip , the families in L.A. are moving into a home that they say is owned by the state .
The home is one of many that Caltrans bought years ago in preparation for a now-aborted plan to extend the 710 Freeway .
Decades of litigation and legislation stalled the 6.2-mile project before construction could begin , leaving transportation officials as landlords for 460 properties that range from modest bungalows in El Sereno to Craftsman mansions on stately streets in South Pasadena .
One of the best-known is the childhood home of chef @ @ @ @ @ @ @ built in 1911 , has been vacant for more than 35 years .
Caltrans has started the process of selling the homes , which are required by law to be offered first to former owners and current tenants who meet certain income requirements , but the vast majority are still owned by the state .
Escudero , who works two days a week as an elderly caregiver , said the mothers in Oakland inspired her to occupy the vacant home on Saturday morning .
She said the protesters are trying to push the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ homeless residents and those without stable housing , especially given the new risks associated with the spread of COVID-19 .
“ With the coronavirus , they want us to be quarantined in our homes , but some of us don ’ t have homes , ” she said .
In speaking to supporters , the protesters , who call themselves Reclaiming Our Homes , said they understood what they were doing is illegal , but the more significant issue was that homes were left vacant while people in the community were homeless .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ crime to come and occupy these houses , ” Benito Flores said .
“ But this is not a crime .
This is justice.
” Roberto Flores , 72 , who is a part of United Caltrans Tenants , said that the state agency has long neglected its properties .
Tenants have sued the Caltrans , alleging it has not followed its own rules to ensure that low-income and longtime residents get access to the houses .
He estimates 200 of the agency ’ s homes are now vacant .
“ They ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re not renting them , ” he said .
Records kept by The Times show that in 2015 , 37 of the El Sereno homes were listed as “ uninhabitable , ” including two dozen apartment units .
Over the years , residents have complained of break-ins , mold and vermin infestations .
That figure appears to have increased in recent years .
An investigation by the Pasadena Star-News found that 163 of the 460 homes sat vacant last year .
Caltrans said at the time that the vacant homes would be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did not provide a timeline .
On Saturday morning , the families and their supporters moved furniture and plants from a U-Haul truck and into the bungalow .
Escudero said they planned to bring in a generator for electricity and urged state and local officials to turn on water service .
Originally , the protesters had planned to take over multiple vacant , Caltrans-owned houses in El Sereno .
But in the pre-dawn hours , the Los Angeles Police Department was alerted that multiple males were attempting to break into a property , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , an LAPD spokesman .
Two people were arrested and charged with burglary , Madison said .
By late morning , officers had gathered across the street but were not attempting to evict the families .
While they watched , supporters stood , chanting , “ Housing is a human right.
” In recent months , homeless and low-income residents in Los Angeles and the Bay Area have cited the state ’ s affordable housing crisis as justification for simply taking over houses .
Saturday ’ s attempted occupation is just the latest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of 1.4 million homes for low-income families and its homeless population stands at about 151,000 on any given night — an increase of 16 % from last year .
Last month , Los Angeles City Councilman Gil Cedillo proposed using eminent domain to force a landlord in Chinatown to sell his building .
Cedillo ’ s proposal came after tenants protested a plan for the building to switch to market-rate rentals following the expiration of an agreement with the city to keep rents low .
His effort is awaiting a hearing at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the group of mothers occupied the house for two months before they were evicted in January .
After that happened , Wedgewood agreed to give community land trusts , affordable housing organizations and the city the right of first refusal for the vacant home and about 50 others it owned in Oakland .
The case attracted national attention and Gov .
Gavin Newsom helped broker the deal , which was announced on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and portrayed by some as a successful act of civil disobedience .
The protesters sent a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ asking for his direct assistance .
In response to the broader homelessness crisis , Newsom has , among other actions , allowed state-owned travel trailers to be used as temporary homeless housing and offered state property to local governments for use as shelters and other solutions .
The protesters said their actions were aligned with the governor ’ s call to turn public property into homeless housing .
But they maintained that Newsom and other elected officials needed to do more and work faster to get people off the streets and into stable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did not immediately respond to a request for comment .
“ There ’ s so many vacant homes while there ’ s people on the streets , ” Escudero said .
“ He should be able to empathize with that and figure out how to reach an agreement with us .
”

Sisters Meztli Escudero, 8, left, and Victoria Escudero, 10, stand in the window of a vacant house they and their families occupied on Saturday morning. The homeless and housing insecure protesters said they were inspired by a similar protest in Oakland earlier this year and by fear of the coronavirus outbreak.
Weeks after a group of homeless mothers took over a vacant house in Oakland and managed to keep it, another group of moms is trying to do the same in Los Angeles.
On Saturday morning, the protesters and their families moved into a two-bedroom bungalow in El Sereno. They say they plan to remain indefinitely and potentially take over more houses.
For the record: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that two men were arrested and charged with burglary. They were cited for misdemeanor trespassing.
They are calling on state and local governments to use all publicly owned vacant homes, libraries, recreation centers and other properties to house people immediately. They say the region’s extreme lack of affordable housing and the threat of the novel coronavirus pushed them to act.
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“I am a mother of two daughters. I need a home,” said Martha Escudero, 42, who has spent the last 18 months living on couches with friends and family members in neighborhoods across East Los Angeles. “There’s these homes that are vacant, and they belong to the community.”
Escudero and her family moved into the house with Ruby Gordillo, 33, and Gordillo’s three children. The Gordillos had been living in a small studio in Pico-Union. Joining the two families in the El Sereno home is Benito Flores, 64, a welder who had been living in his van.
Like the Moms 4 Housing group in Oakland, the protesters in L.A. are receiving assistance from the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, an organizing group that has advocated for state measures to expand rent control and other tenant protections.
A group of housing insecure and homeless people and families and their supporters stage a rally on Sheffield Avenue on Saturday morning to “reclaim” a vacant house that they say is owned by Caltrans. (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)
But unlike in Oakland, where the mothers successfully pressured Wedgewood Inc. of Redondo Beach to sell a vacant home that the company was planning to renovate and flip, the families in L.A. are moving into a home that they say is owned by the state.
The home is one of many that Caltrans bought years ago in preparation for a now-aborted plan to extend the 710 Freeway. Decades of litigation and legislation stalled the 6.2-mile project before construction could begin, leaving transportation officials as landlords for 460 properties that range from modest bungalows in El Sereno to Craftsman mansions on stately streets in South Pasadena.
One of the best-known is the childhood home of chef Julia Child. The Pasadena house, built in 1911, has been vacant for more than 35 years.
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Caltrans has started the process of selling the homes, which are required by law to be offered first to former owners and current tenants who meet certain income requirements, but the vast majority are still owned by the state.
Caltrans did not respond to a request for comment.
Escudero, who works two days a week as an elderly caregiver, said the mothers in Oakland inspired her to occupy the vacant home on Saturday morning. She said the protesters are trying to push the state and city to take care of homeless residents and those without stable housing, especially given the new risks associated with the spread of COVID-19.
“With the coronavirus, they want us to be quarantined in our homes, but some of us don’t have homes,” she said.
In speaking to supporters, the protesters, who call themselves Reclaiming Our Homes, said they understood what they were doing is illegal, but the more significant issue was that homes were left vacant while people in the community were homeless.
“They say it’s a crime to come and occupy these houses,” Benito Flores said. “But this is not a crime. This is justice.”
Roberto Flores, 72, who is a part of United Caltrans Tenants, said that the state agency has long neglected its properties. Tenants have sued Caltrans, alleging it has not followed its own rules to ensure that low-income and longtime residents get access to the houses. He estimates 200 of the agency’s homes are now vacant.
“They’re not fixing them, and they’re not renting them,” he said.
Volunteers help move Martha Escudero into a vacant house she and other protesters occupied Saturday morning. (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)
Records kept by The Times show that in 2015, 37 of the El Sereno homes were listed as “uninhabitable,” including two dozen apartment units. Over the years, residents have complained of break-ins, mold and vermin infestations. That figure appears to have increased in recent years.
An investigation by the Pasadena Star-News found that 163 of the 460 homes sat vacant last year. Caltrans said at the time that the vacant homes would be sold according to state laws, but did not provide a timeline.
On Saturday morning, the families and their supporters moved furniture and plants from a U-Haul truck and into the bungalow. Escudero said they planned to bring in a generator for electricity and urged state and local officials to turn on water service.
Originally, the protesters had planned to take over multiple vacant, Caltrans-owned houses in El Sereno. But in the pre-dawn hours, the Los Angeles Police Department was alerted that multiple men were attempting to break into a property, said Los Angeles police Officer Drake Madison, an LAPD spokesman. Two people were arrested and cited for misdemeanor trespassing, Madison said.
By late morning, officers had gathered across the street but were not attempting to evict the families. While they watched, supporters stood, chanting, “Housing is a human right.”
In recent months, homeless and low-income residents in Los Angeles and the Bay Area have cited the state’s affordable housing crisis as justification for simply taking over houses. Saturday’s attempted occupation is just the latest example.
California has an estimated shortage of 1.4 million homes for low-income families and its homeless population stands at about 151,000 on any given night — an increase of 16% from last year.
Last month, Los Angeles City Councilman Gil Cedillo proposed using eminent domain to force a landlord in Chinatown to sell his building. Cedillo’s proposal came after tenants protested a plan for the building to switch to market-rate rentals following the expiration of an agreement with the city to keep rents low. His effort is awaiting a hearing at the L.A. City Council.
A group of homeless and housing insecure protesters and their supporters hold a rally on Sheffield Avenue on Saturday to take over a vacant home. (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)
In Oakland, the group of mothers occupied the house for two months before they were evicted in January. After that happened, Wedgewood agreed to give community land trusts, affordable housing organizations and the city the right of first refusal for the vacant home and about 50 others it owned in Oakland. The company is finalizing a deal with the land trust for the property, which is intended to house those who had occupied it.
The case attracted national attention and Gov. Gavin Newsom helped broker the deal, which was announced on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and portrayed by some as a successful act of civil disobedience.
The protesters sent a letter to Newsom on Saturday morning, asking for his direct assistance.
In response to the broader homelessness crisis, Newsom has, among other actions, allowed state-owned travel trailers to be used as temporary homeless housing and offered state property to local governments for use as shelters and other solutions.
The protesters said their actions were aligned with the governor’s call to turn public property into homeless housing. But they maintained that Newsom and other elected officials needed to do more and work faster to get people off the streets and into stable housing.
The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
“There’s so many vacant homes while there’s people on the streets,” Escudero said. “He should be able to empathize with that and figure out how to reach an agreement with us.”


latimes--2020-03-14--Coronavirus fallout: Why closing Disneyland is such a blow to American optimism

As one American institution after another fell — the NBA season halted , the start of the Major League Baseball season delayed , Broadway going dark — the closure of Anaheim ’ s Disneyland Resort Friday night became not just inevitable but imperative .
To remain open any longer than absolutely necessary during a public health crisis could start to appear irresponsible to the park ’ s front-line staff , especially in the wake of an executive order by California Gov .
Gavin Newsom aimed in part at curtailing large-scale events across the state .
And yet when Disney ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hard .
A full non-weather-related closure of Disneyland is such an abnormality that it ’ s happened just three times in the park ’ s 65-year history .
In each instance its hand was forced by events beyond control of the company so adept in the art of optimistic illusion .
The walls of Disneyland ’ s fairy tale castle — buoyantly pink and cheerfully blue still at this very moment — have stood through multiple wars , civil rights movements , economic downturns and nearly every societal trend , change or tragedy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and regardless of the corporate directives of the Walt Disney Co. , the pirates , the ghosts and the island birds still sang .
It ’ s taken for granted that Disneyland stays open , like a high-priced roadside attraction that stands as a symbol of the stability and the seemingly ever-lasting appeal of American pop art .
Throughout its six decades , Disneyland has taken the pulse of American culture , be it the romance of Main Street , U.S.A. , and New Orleans Square , or the Western action of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mountain .
Disneyland has proven so remarkably durable that it has been replicated and re-imagined multiple times and in numerous spaces , spreading American ideals to not just Walt Disney World in Florida but to parks in Tokyo , Paris , Hong Kong and Shanghai .
And yet come Monday — following the closing of Disneyland Resort and earlier shutdowns in Asia — every single Disney theme park in the world is scheduled to be closed , and a global heartbeat that began in Anaheim will stop beating for the first time in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ crisis , the economic crash of 2008 and even the death of the park ’ s founder , Walt Disney , couldn ’ t stop Disneyland from humming .
But today the silence in Anaheim and beyond is sending a rather loud message : We are , at this moment , broken .
When Disneyland ’ s turnstiles have in the past been locked into place , they held steady only briefly , as if for a short momentary pause to catch our collective breath .
On November 23 , 1963 , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the late President John F. Kennedy , Disneyland observed a daylong moment of silence .
And after the terrorist attacks of Tuesday , Sept. 11 , 2001 , the park nearly instantaneously rebounded .
Disneyland was closed for a single day , reopening on Wednesday .
As so much of the rest of country grieved or remained in shock , the mechanical children of It ’ s a Small World were called back into action .
A stubborn move or a defiant one ?
Stories at the time wondered about the economic toll @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the point of view that Disneyland simply didn ’ t have the business option to remain offline .
And yet , especially for a large company so intertwined in the mix of art and commerce , it ’ s all too easy to overlook the communal import of Anaheim ’ s Magic Kingdom .
Often spoken of as a place of reassurance , going to Disneyland for many is the ultimate act of self-care .
It ’ s not an escape — we are never not aware that we are in a theme @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Nearly any other time Disneyland has shuttered has been due to severe and sudden weather , which itself is a rarity , largely due to the fact that so many of Disney ’ s attractions are indoors and not subject to the elements in the same way as a standard amusement park ( or the hurricanes that can rain on Walt Disney World ) .
And yet Disneyland , of course , is slippery .
“ It can be treacherous walking around the park , ” a Disney spokesman told The Times @ @ @ @ @ @ @ day in 1987 due to storms .
But by and large , Disneyland has been able to fight through whatever ails our country ’ s collective consciousness , even as it so often directly reflects it .
While Disneyland can be seen as a fake world inspired by a real one that never actually existed , don ’ t mistake environmental storytelling for nostalgia .
Main Street , USA , especially as it has aged , is less about some longing for better , more simple times .
It ’ s small-town America @ @ @ @ @ @ @ serves to reorient us , to place us somewhere vaguely familiar while allowing us to drift back into our imaginations .
Suddenly , a castle at the end of block isn ’ t disruptive ; it ’ s extending a hand .
For those on whom this fantasy works — and if attendance estimates are accurate , it works for somewhere around 19 million people per year — Disneyland allows us to become emotionally free , to surrender ourselves into an exquisitely designed , thoughtfully crafted narrative .
It ’ s a sensation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ live theater , only now we are on the stage and comfortable to play at idealized versions of ourselves .
This isn ’ t to say Disneyland is so romanticized that it exists separate from our world .
On the contrary , it complements it , and it sometimes has things to learn from it .
Disneyland , for instance , was forced to aggressively distance itself from its history of a less-than-welcome approach to same-sex couples , staging a large fundraiser in 1987 for AIDS Project Los Angeles to , in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dismiss finally all the nonsense that ’ s happened in the past.
” Thus , Disneyland shifts with us , and , even when it ’ s behind the times — one today could still go hunting for some less-than-exemplary representations of other cultures in Adventureland — its fans tend to forgive Disneyland because it represents not just where this country has been but where it can go .
In 2017 , when Imagineers announced that Pirates of the Caribbean would no longer feature women sold into slavery , it avoided what could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ # MeToo movement .
Ultimately , Disneyland may in fact be exactly where this country turns in dark times .
It could be argued that it is , in fact , born of them , arriving in 1955 in a post-WWII America that was adjusting to more internalized , less-overtly-visible fears .
The specter of nuclear annihilation was now forever a reality , and the Cold War heightened the sense of uncertainty .
“ Is it any wonder Walt begins his story of Disneyland with a walk through the last stable time in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rhetorically asks Chris Nichols in Taschen ’ s expansive 2018 book “ Walt Disney ’ s Disneyland.
” No , and it shouldn ’ t be any wonder that Disney ’ s American theme parks are today , with the occasional exception , as consistently crowded as they have ever been , to the point that some have even wondered why so many so-called childless millennials are filling the parks .
But in a time of political and cultural divisiveness , in which even today ’ s fears surrounding the coronovirus are politicized @ @ @ @ @ @ @ financial uncertainty for so many , why wouldn ’ t we flock to a place where everything simply makes sense ?
So as prudent as Disneyland ’ s closure may be , it also amplifies our anxieties and the unpredictability of life at the moment .
Disneyland is closed at least through the end of the month , but as we have seen from other parts of the world attempting to manage the spread of disease , a re-opening date is far from firm .
Disneyland , of course , will survive .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , in the words of its creator , to represent “ the ideals , the dreams and the hard facts that created America.
” Yet unlike the times after the death of a president or an act of war , Disneyland won ’ t be bouncing back in 24 hours as a place of comfort .
For the first time in its six-plus decades , the Disneyland berm , which is designed to limit visible and audible intrusions from the outside world , has proven powerless .
No wonder so many feel so @ @ @

As one American institution after another fell — the NBA season halted, the start of the Major League Baseball season delayed, Broadway going dark — the closure of Anaheim’s Disneyland Resort Friday night became not just inevitable but imperative.
To remain open any longer than absolutely necessary during a public health crisis could start to appear irresponsible to the park’s front-line staff, especially in the wake of an executive order by California Gov. Gavin Newsom aimed in part at curtailing large-scale events across the state.
And yet when Disney’s announcement came, it still hit hard. A full unplanned, non-weather-related closure of Disneyland is such an abnormality that it’s happened just three times in the park’s 65-year history. In each instance its hand was forced by events beyond control of the company so adept in the art of optimistic illusion.
The walls of Disneyland’s fairy tale castle — buoyantly pink and cheerfully blue still at this very moment — have stood through multiple wars, civil rights movements, economic downturns and nearly every societal trend, change or tragedy.
For whatever was happening in America, and regardless of the corporate directives of the Walt Disney Co., the pirates, the ghosts and the island birds still sang. It’s taken for granted that Disneyland stays open, like a high-priced roadside attraction that stands as a symbol of the stability and the seemingly ever-lasting appeal of American pop art. Throughout its six decades, Disneyland has taken the pulse of American culture, be it the romance of Main Street, U.S.A., and New Orleans Square, or the Western action of Frontierland and the intergalactic hopefulness of Space Mountain.
An early Disneyland map created by the company’s Sam McKim. The park is surrounded by a “berm,” designed to keep audible and visible intrusions outside the park’s gates. (Disney)
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Disneyland has proven so remarkably durable that it has been replicated and re-imagined multiple times and in numerous spaces, spreading American ideals to not just Walt Disney World in Florida but to parks in Tokyo, Paris, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
And yet come Monday — following the closing of Disneyland Resort and earlier shutdowns in Asia — every single Disney theme park in the world is scheduled to be closed, and a global heartbeat that began in Anaheim will stop beating for the first time in our history. Vietnam, the AIDS crisis, the economic crash of 2008 and even the death of the park’s founder, Walt Disney, couldn’t stop Disneyland from humming.
But today the silence in Anaheim and beyond is sending a rather loud message: We are, at this moment, broken.
When Disneyland’s turnstiles have in the past been locked into place, they held steady only briefly, as if for a short momentary pause to catch our collective breath.
On November 23, 1963, a national day of mourning in honor of the late President John F. Kennedy, Disneyland observed a daylong moment of silence. And after the terrorist attacks of Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, the park nearly instantaneously rebounded. Disneyland was closed for a single day, reopening on Wednesday. As so much of the rest of country grieved or remained in shock, the mechanical children of It’s a Small World were called back into action.
Advertisement
A stubborn move or a defiant one? Stories at the time wondered about the economic toll of a one-day closure, written from the point of view that Disneyland simply didn’t have the business option to remain offline. And yet, especially for a large company so intertwined in the mix of art and commerce, it’s all too easy to overlook the communal import of Anaheim’s Magic Kingdom. Often spoken of as a place of reassurance, going to Disneyland for many is the ultimate act of self-care. It’s not an escape — we are never not aware that we are in a theme park — but it is a reset.
The doll choir of It’s a Small World has rarely been silenced. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
Nearly any other time Disneyland has shuttered has been due to severe and sudden weather, which itself is a rarity, largely due to the fact that so many of Disney’s attractions are indoors and not subject to the elements in the same way as a standard amusement park (or the hurricanes that can rain on Walt Disney World).
And yet Disneyland, of course, is slippery. “It can be treacherous walking around the park,” a Disney spokesman told The Times after the park was shuttered for a day in 1987 due to storms.
But by and large, Disneyland has been able to fight through whatever ails our country’s collective consciousness, even as it so often directly reflects it.
READ MORE: FULL CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE
While Disneyland can be seen as a fake world inspired by a real one that never actually existed, don’t mistake environmental storytelling for nostalgia. Main Street, USA, especially as it has aged, is less about some longing for better, more simple times. It’s small-town America as a movie set, and it serves to reorient us, to place us somewhere vaguely familiar while allowing us to drift back into our imaginations. Suddenly, a castle at the end of block isn’t disruptive; it’s extending a hand.
For those on whom this fantasy works — and if attendance estimates are accurate, it works for somewhere around 19 million people per year — Disneyland allows us to become emotionally free, to surrender ourselves into an exquisitely designed, thoughtfully crafted narrative. It’s a sensation not too dissimilar from the power of live theater, only now we are on the stage and comfortable to play at idealized versions of ourselves.
This isn’t to say Disneyland is so romanticized that it exists separate from our world. On the contrary, it complements it, and it sometimes has things to learn from it. Disneyland, for instance, was forced to aggressively distance itself from its history of a less-than-welcome approach to same-sex couples, staging a large fundraiser in 1987 for AIDS Project Los Angeles to, in the words of a park spokesman, “dismiss finally all the nonsense that’s happened in the past.”
Disneyland’s opening in 1955. The park today is arguably as popular as it has ever been. (Associated Press)
Thus, Disneyland shifts with us, and, even when it’s behind the times — one today could still go hunting for some less-than-exemplary representations of other cultures in Adventureland — its fans tend to forgive Disneyland because it represents not just where this country has been but where it can go. In 2017, when Imagineers announced that Pirates of the Caribbean would no longer feature women sold into slavery, it avoided what could have soon become a mini-crisis during the #MeToo movement.
Ultimately, Disneyland may in fact be exactly where this country turns in dark times. It could be argued that it is, in fact, born of them, arriving in 1955 in a post-WWII America that was adjusting to more internalized, less-overtly-visible fears. The specter of nuclear annihilation was now forever a reality, and the Cold War heightened the sense of uncertainty.
“Is it any wonder Walt begins his story of Disneyland with a walk through the last stable time in American to restart the narrative?” rhetorically asks Chris Nichols in Taschen’s expansive 2018 book “Walt Disney’s Disneyland.”
No, and it shouldn’t be any wonder that Disney’s American theme parks are today, with the occasional exception, as consistently crowded as they have ever been, to the point that some have even wondered why so many so-called childless millennials are filling the parks.
But in a time of political and cultural divisiveness, in which even today’s fears surrounding the coronovirus are politicized, not to mention an era of financial uncertainty for so many, why wouldn’t we flock to a place where everything simply makes sense?
So as prudent as Disneyland’s closure may be, it also amplifies our anxieties and the unpredictability of life at the moment. Disneyland is closed at least through the end of the month, but as we have seen from other parts of the world attempting to manage the spread of disease, a re-opening date is far from firm.
Disneyland, of course, will survive. It is built to last, designed, in the words of its creator, to represent “the ideals, the dreams and the hard facts that created America.”
Yet unlike the times after the death of a president or an act of war, Disneyland won’t be bouncing back in 24 hours as a place of comfort. For the first time in its six-plus decades, the Disneyland berm, which is designed to limit visible and audible intrusions from the outside world, has proven powerless.
No wonder so many feel so indefinably confused.


latimes--2020-03-14--Orange County reports first coronavirus case from community spread, its 13th overall

Orange County now has reported its first case of coronavirus that appears to have spread through the community as the @ @ @ @ @ rose to 13 .
The Orange County Health Care Agency said a woman acquired the @ @ @ @ @ hospitalized in stable condition .
No other details were provided .
Here is the breakdown @ @ @ @ @ The new tally came as the Orange County superintendent of schools said he supported suspending @ @ @ @ @ least two weeks .
“ This is not a decision we take lightly , ” @ @ @ @ @ We know that temporarily closing a school has a tremendous impact on our families , @ @ @ @ @ be implemented to support the continuity of learning and to ensure students have access to @ @ @ @ @ safety of our students and staff remains our top priority , and we have confidence @ @ @ @ @ precautionary course for Orange County .
”

Orange County now has reported its first case of coronavirus that appears to have spread through the community as the total number of presumed cases rose to 13.
The Orange County Health Care Agency said a woman acquired the virus locally and is now hospitalized in stable condition. No other details were provided.
Here is the breakdown of Orange County cases:
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10 Travel-related
2 Person-to-person
1 Community acquired
The new tally came as the Orange County superintendent of schools said he supported suspending all school operations for at least two weeks.


latimes--2020-03-14--UC has a solution to the national shortage of coronavirus testing — do it in house

The University of California ’ s five medical centers are gearing up to expand their own in-house testing for cases of the novel coronavirus — a move that could greatly accelerate efforts to identify infected patients and stem the pandemic .
By the time they fully ramp up in the coming days and weeks , the centers could provide hundreds of tests a day to their patients .
It ’ s questionable , however , whether they will have the capacity to open testing to the public .
Such an increase in testing can ’ t come quickly enough for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ease the pressure on overwhelmed state and county health labs to contain the contagion by quickly identifying infected Californians .
So far , a limited number of tests — both in California and nationwide — have prevented everyone with symptoms from being tested for the virus .
The UC system joins Stanford University , which was the first academic medical center in California to develop its own test and begin using it on a limited basis to diagnose patients .
In Baltimore , Johns Hopkins Hospital also began using its own test this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Researchers there say they hope to move to a daily load of 1,000 samples in the next few weeks , using both manual and automated testing processes .
“ Pretty much every academic medical center is either in the process of looking into in-house testing or already started to go live , ” said Nam Tran , UC Davis Health ’ s senior medical director of clinical pathology .
“ Everyone is accelerating plans and identifying workarounds one way or another because there is a shortage of supply and commercial labs may @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the demand of the country.
” A lack of test kits , testing ingredients , lab staffing and equipment has slowed California ’ s response in particular .
Statewide , only about 1,900 people have been tested for the coronavirus as of Friday morning , despite several thousands — if not hundreds of thousands — of people who have probably been exposed to it .
Without testing , it is unclear who is sick and needs to be quarantined , allowing the illness to spread to more people .
The UC system , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , aims to ease the logjam .
“ The academic medical centers , Stanford and the UCs , are leading the charge in California , ” said Omai Garner , an associate clinical professor who directs clinical microbiology testing for UCLA Health .
“ We have the resources and we have the in-house expertise.
” UCLA , along with UC San Francisco and UC San Diego , already have begun in-house testing for their patients and hope to rapidly ramp up in coming days .
UC San Francisco has developed its own test @ @ @ @ @ @ @ many as 400 patients a week .
UCSF officials emphasized , however , that they are using the test for their own , sickest patients , not the public .
UCLA and San Diego also are serving their own patients .
The Westwood medical center is using the test developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , but began processing the samples on its own equipment Tuesday .
Taking it in-house has cut the turnaround time to as little as eight hours compared with a few days for samples sent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said .
UCLA can now handle from 40 to 80 tests a day , he said , adding he would like to increase that volume tenfold .
San Diego is testing about 20 patients a day with its own test .
The turnaround time is eight hours , which includes first ruling out other respiratory illnesses , such as influenza .
“ We are taking multiple strategies to substantially increase this capacity in the next few weeks , ” Steven Gonias , chief of pathology for UC San Diego Health , and David @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the UCSD Center for Advanced Laboratory Medicine , said in a statement .
UC Davis , however , is poised to vastly expand in-house testing with a new state-of-the-art instrument that can automatically process more than 1,400 samples daily — far faster than testing at most other labs , which do so manually .
Technologists such as clinical lab scientists using the manual process must extract genetic material from each sample , obtained through a nasal or mouth swab , with a concoction of chemicals .
Then they must analyze it to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ found in the virus that causes COVID-19 .
The process can take several hours for just one test .
Tran said the UC Davis molecular lab in Sacramento hopes to process up to 1,440 samples a day on its new instrument , a cobas 6800 by Roche Diagnostics of Switzerland .
The lab installed the molecular diagnostics instrument last December , Tran said , expecting to use it for routine tasks such as cancer gene screenings and testing for other infectious diseases , such as HIV .
Then the coronavirus outbreak hit .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ researchers to run not only Roche tests but also their own .
Once the federal government issued new rules in late February speeding the approval process for commercial , research and academic labs to develop their own tests for the virus , Davis researchers began working on their own “ home brew , ” as Tran put it .
Their recipe uses some different chemicals than those that are found in the federal CDC test , allowing the medical center to reach into its own supply chains and avoid the national shortages of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Tran said .
The test is being validated per U.S. Food and Drug Administration criteria and should be ready to roll out within a few weeks , he said .
“ I think we ’ ll be able to offer faster testing and alleviate a lot of the burden on public health labs , ” Tran said .
Dr. Aimee Moulin , an emergency room physician at UC Davis , said it currently takes about two days to get test results back from private labs .
She said Davis has treated three positive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Francisco is at work on potentially game-changing research that could make testing for the virus as easy and widespread as flu screenings .
An experimental test by Charles Chiu of UCSF and Janice Chen of Mammoth Biosciences in South San Francisco could produce results in as quickly as 30 minutes by incubating a sample in a test tube and determining the presence of the virus using a strip that would change colors like a pregnancy test .
The work is based on a technology known as CRISPR-Cas , which can identify genetic sequences @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a way to detect the needle in the haystack to be able to very rapidly identify whether or not a patient has been infected by looking for genetic sequence from the virus , ” Chiu told KTVU Fox 2 .
“ We need to be able to test for the virus in a doctor ’ s clinic , in an emergency room , or even potentially at the airport.
” The team is seeking FDA approval for the test but has not yet found a commercial partner to manufacture and distribute it widely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the way .
On Friday , Roche announced that the FDA had authorized the use of its high-speed test for the virus by certified laboratories and said it could make millions of tests available each month .
Garner , of UCLA , said the development of tests by diagnostic manufacturers offered the best way to ramp up testing quickly and make it available beyond specialized academic labs .
California health officials said such added capacity will be a godsend to the state , where confirmed cases have multiplied to 247 as of Friday @ @ @ @ @ @ @ At a press briefing Thursday , Barbara Ferrer , director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health , reiterated that county labs and even commercial labs have limited capacity for testing for the virus .
“ We ’ re really excited about hospitals being able to order the machines and the tests in their own labs for their own patients , ” she said .
Because of low testing capacity , Los Angeles County officials have maintained that patients without a history of travel to an affected country can be tested @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be in the ICU .
When patients did qualify for testing , it could take four to five days to get results back from the CDC , she said .
At UCLA , the limited number of tests has prevented everyone who has wanted to be tested from being tested , said emergency room nurse Marcia Santini .
“ When we needed to test them , ” Santini said , “ we didn ’ t have the ability to test .
”

Brian Bowland, a senior clinical lab specialist in microbiology for UCLA Health, preps a mix for testing of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The University of California’s five medical centers are expanding in-house testing in an effort to ease hindrances to the nation’s response to the pandemic.
The University of California’s five medical centers are gearing up to expand their own in-house testing for cases of the novel coronavirus — a move that could greatly accelerate efforts to identify infected patients and stem the pandemic.
By the time they fully ramp up in the coming days and weeks, the centers could provide hundreds of tests a day to their patients. It’s questionable, however, whether they will have the capacity to open testing to the public.
Such an increase in testing can’t come quickly enough for public health professionals, as it would ease the pressure on overwhelmed state and county health labs to contain the contagion by quickly identifying infected Californians. So far, a limited number of tests — both in California and nationwide — have prevented everyone with symptoms from being tested for the virus.
The UC system joins Stanford University, which was the first academic medical center in California to develop its own test and begin using it on a limited basis to diagnose patients.
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In Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Hospital also began using its own test this week on about 50 patients per day. Researchers there say they hope to move to a daily load of 1,000 samples in the next few weeks, using both manual and automated testing processes.
“Pretty much every academic medical center is either in the process of looking into in-house testing or already started to go live,” said Nam Tran, UC Davis Health’s senior medical director of clinical pathology. “Everyone is accelerating plans and identifying workarounds one way or another because there is a shortage of supply and commercial labs may not be able to keep up with the demand of the country.”
A lack of test kits, testing ingredients, lab staffing and equipment has slowed California’s response in particular.
Statewide, only about 1,900 people have been tested for the coronavirus as of Friday morning, despite several thousands — if not hundreds of thousands — of people who have probably been exposed to it. Without testing, it is unclear who is sick and needs to be quarantined, allowing the illness to spread to more people.
Omai Garner, who directs clinical microbiology testing for UCLA Health, leans into a room used for detecting the novel coronavirus. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
The UC system, along with private companies and other universities, aims to ease the logjam.
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“The academic medical centers, Stanford and the UCs, are leading the charge in California,” said Omai Garner, an associate clinical professor who directs clinical microbiology testing for UCLA Health. “We have the resources and we have the in-house expertise.”
UCLA, along with UC San Francisco and UC San Diego, already have begun in-house testing for their patients and hope to rapidly ramp up in coming days. UC San Francisco has developed its own test and aims to use it for as many as 400 patients a week. UCSF officials emphasized, however, that they are using the test for their own, sickest patients, not the public.
UCLA and San Diego also are serving their own patients. The Westwood medical center is using the test developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but began processing the samples on its own equipment Tuesday.
Taking it in-house has cut the turnaround time to as little as eight hours compared with a few days for samples sent out to an external lab, Garner said. UCLA can now handle from 40 to 80 tests a day, he said, adding he would like to increase that volume tenfold.
San Diego is testing about 20 patients a day with its own test. The turnaround time is eight hours, which includes first ruling out other respiratory illnesses, such as influenza.
“We are taking multiple strategies to substantially increase this capacity in the next few weeks,” Steven Gonias, chief of pathology for UC San Diego Health, and David Pride, associate director for diagnostic microbiology in the UCSD Center for Advanced Laboratory Medicine, said in a statement.
Katie Zegarski, supervising clinical lab scientist with the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UC Davis Health, runs through the process of loading samples into a new testing instrument for the virus that causes COVID-19. (Wayne Tilcock/UC Davis Health)
UC Davis, however, is poised to vastly expand in-house testing with a new state-of-the-art instrument that can automatically process more than 1,400 samples daily — far faster than testing at most other labs, which do so manually.
Technologists such as clinical lab scientists using the manual process must extract genetic material from each sample, obtained through a nasal or mouth swab, with a concoction of chemicals. Then they must analyze it to see if it matches the genetic sequence found in the virus that causes COVID-19. The process can take several hours for just one test.
Tran said the UC Davis molecular lab in Sacramento hopes to process up to 1,440 samples a day on its new instrument, a cobas 6800 by Roche Diagnostics of Switzerland.
The lab installed the molecular diagnostics instrument last December, Tran said, expecting to use it for routine tasks such as cancer gene screenings and testing for other infectious diseases, such as HIV. Then the coronavirus outbreak hit.
The model that UC Davis purchased allows researchers to run not only Roche tests but also their own. Once the federal government issued new rules in late February speeding the approval process for commercial, research and academic labs to develop their own tests for the virus, Davis researchers began working on their own “home brew,” as Tran put it.
Their recipe uses some different chemicals than those that are found in the federal CDC test, allowing the medical center to reach into its own supply chains and avoid the national shortages of the components, known as reagents, Tran said.
The test is being validated per U.S. Food and Drug Administration criteria and should be ready to roll out within a few weeks, he said.
“I think we’ll be able to offer faster testing and alleviate a lot of the burden on public health labs,” Tran said.
Dr. Aimee Moulin, an emergency room physician at UC Davis, said it currently takes about two days to get test results back from private labs. She said Davis has treated three positive COVID-19 patients so far.
UC Irvine Health also plans to begin in-house testing April 6.
UC San Francisco is at work on potentially game-changing research that could make testing for the virus as easy and widespread as flu screenings. An experimental test by Charles Chiu of UCSF and Janice Chen of Mammoth Biosciences in South San Francisco could produce results in as quickly as 30 minutes by incubating a sample in a test tube and determining the presence of the virus using a strip that would change colors like a pregnancy test.
The work is based on a technology known as CRISPR-Cas, which can identify genetic sequences.
Brian Bowland, senior clinical lab specialist in microbiology at UCLA Health, prepares a master mix for testing of the COVID-19 coronavirus. (Al Seib/Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
“We are using CRISPR as a way to detect the needle in the haystack to be able to very rapidly identify whether or not a patient has been infected by looking for genetic sequence from the virus,” Chiu told KTVU Fox 2. “We need to be able to test for the virus in a doctor’s clinic, in an emergency room, or even potentially at the airport.”
The team is seeking FDA approval for the test but has not yet found a commercial partner to manufacture and distribute it widely.
Meanwhile, more tests are on the way. On Friday, Roche announced that the FDA had authorized the use of its high-speed test for the virus by certified laboratories and said it could make millions of tests available each month.
Garner, of UCLA, said the development of tests by diagnostic manufacturers offered the best way to ramp up testing quickly and make it available beyond specialized academic labs.
California health officials said such added capacity will be a godsend to the state, where confirmed cases have multiplied to 247 as of Friday morning. Five people have died.
At a press briefing Thursday, Barbara Ferrer, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, reiterated that county labs and even commercial labs have limited capacity for testing for the virus.
“We’re really excited about hospitals being able to order the machines and the tests in their own labs for their own patients,” she said.
Because of low testing capacity, Los Angeles County officials have maintained that patients without a history of travel to an affected country can be tested only if they are sick enough to be in the ICU. When patients did qualify for testing, it could take four to five days to get results back from the CDC, she said.
At UCLA, the limited number of tests has prevented everyone who has wanted to be tested from being tested, said emergency room nurse Marcia Santini.
“When we needed to test them,” Santini said, “we didn’t have the ability to test.”


latimes--2020-03-14--Kaiser is doing semi-secret, drive-by Bay Area virus tests

Amid the new coronavirus , the freeways of the Bay Area are less clogged than usual , and shelves of grocery stores look apocalyptically ransacked — byproducts of California being part of an international pandemic .
It also comes with some advantages : If Bay Area residents belong to a certain healthcare plan , they can easily drive through the region ’ s unusually free-flowing roads to visit a drive-through test site for COVID-19 .
They just open their mouth .
Get tested .
Then put the car in gear .
Two days later , they get their results .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ facility was set up in one of several outdoor parking lots owned by Kaiser Permanente in Redwood City .
It represented a fragment of the aggressive drive-through testing that South Korea conducted to help stem COVID-19 ; but for California , it was a start .
Under a blue pop-up tent , a team that rotated between six and seven staff members waited for incoming automobile-steering patients .
At 4:20 on a blustery but sunny afternoon , a dark gray Toyota Prius , driven by a woman in sunglasses , rolled up to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ waved in by a uniformed security guard .
She pulled gingerly up to the pop tent , rolled down her window and took off her shades .
Bustling into action , a nurse helped Rod Mokhtari , Kaiser ’ s Redwood City assistant chief of medicine , don himself with a yellow paper gown .
The nurse then helped him swaddle his hands with a pair of purple latex gloves .
Properly adorned , with smock , gloves , a mask and protective glasses , Mokhtari stepped out from the tent , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — sampling kit in hand .
Patient and doctor exchanged a few words , before she tilted her head back slightly and opened her mouth wide .
Mokhtari , cotton swab in hand , reached in and with small , circular motions , swabbed the inside of her mouth .
Satisfied , he pulled the utensil out , and dropped it into a container .
He then grabbed a new one , and with her head still tilted back , he inserted it into her left nostril — which caused her to blink @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and also dropped it into a container .
She then drove off .
Start to finish : no more than 5 minutes .
Ten minutes later another patient arrived , and the process was repeated .
Mokhtari was not available for an interview .
The name of the nurse was not provided .
But the procedure provided a small glimpse of how South Korea , with its government-run healthcare system , could test so many people so fast .
As of this week , South Korea , a nation of 51 million , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 20 , when the outbreak occurred there .
In the United States , with a far higher population , less than 15,000 had been tested by Friday , according to published reports .
California ’ s lack of statewide testing , compounded by the federal government ’ s inability to procure key chemicals needed for the tests , is one reason Silicon Valley has become ground zero for the virus statewide .
As of Friday , Santa Clara County had reported 79 confirmed cases , and surrounding counties had reported many more .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ national communications for Kaiser , the medical group has set up only three of these drive-up testing sites .
One in San Francisco , another in San Leandro , and this one , here in Redwood City .
The facilities are not permanent and change from day-to-day .
He said no sites have yet been set up in Southern California , and had no information about plans to do so .
However , he said other regional centers , such as those in Colorado and the Washington , D.C. , will be trying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ These aren ’ t for the general public , ” he said , noting that only patients who are Kaiser members and have been provided an appointment with the facility by their doctor are permitted access .
The sites are not publicly disclosed , he said , because the point of the procedure is to reduce the risk of exposure that occurs in hospital or clinic waiting rooms — where several people can come into contact with one another and the virus can be transmitted .
“ We don ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is also being tried in New Rochelle , N.Y. — where a large cluster of COVID 19 cases are located — and Philadelphia .
The number of people tested are low , but New York ’ s governor was optimistic Friday .
“ We ’ re partnering with Northwell and BioReference to run the state ’ s first drive-through testing facility and ensure the highest-risk population gets the tests they need to help us contain and combat this pandemic , ” Gov .
Andrew Cuomo said .

Medical staff test a person for the coronavirus in a drive-thru setting Wednesday at the Kaiser Permanente Geary campus in San Francisco. Drive-thru testing is available by appointment only for Kaiser members, and the locations change daily, unknown to the general public.
Amid the new coronavirus, the freeways of the Bay Area are less clogged than usual, and shelves of grocery stores look apocalyptically ransacked — byproducts of California being part of an international pandemic.
It also comes with some advantages: If Bay Area residents belong to a certain healthcare plan, they can easily drive through the region’s unusually free-flowing roads to visit a drive-through test site for COVID-19.
They just open their mouth. Get tested. Then put the car in gear.
Two days later, they get their results.
On Friday, a drive-through coronavirus testing facility was set up in one of several outdoor parking lots owned by Kaiser Permanente in Redwood City. It represented a fragment of the aggressive drive-through testing that South Korea conducted to help stem COVID-19; but for California, it was a start.
Under a blue pop-up tent, a team that rotated between six and seven staff members waited for incoming automobile-steering patients.
At 4:20 on a blustery but sunny afternoon, a dark gray Toyota Prius, driven by a woman in sunglasses, rolled up to the cordoned-off parking lot, and was waved in by a uniformed security guard. She pulled gingerly up to the pop tent, rolled down her window and took off her shades.
Bustling into action, a nurse helped Rod Mokhtari, Kaiser’s Redwood City assistant chief of medicine, don himself with a yellow paper gown. The nurse then helped him swaddle his hands with a pair of purple latex gloves.
Properly adorned, with smock, gloves, a mask and protective glasses, Mokhtari stepped out from the tent, and approached the driver’s side window — sampling kit in hand.
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Patient and doctor exchanged a few words, before she tilted her head back slightly and opened her mouth wide. Mokhtari, cotton swab in hand, reached in and with small, circular motions, swabbed the inside of her mouth. Satisfied, he pulled the utensil out, and dropped it into a container.
He then grabbed a new one, and with her head still tilted back, he inserted it into her left nostril — which caused her to blink a few times — extruded it, and also dropped it into a container.
She then drove off. Start to finish: no more than 5 minutes.
Ten minutes later another patient arrived, and the process was repeated.
Medical staff prepare to test Kaiser members for the coronavirus Friday in Redwood City, Calif. (Susanne Rust / Los Angeles Times)
Mokhtari was not available for an interview. The name of the nurse was not provided. But the procedure provided a small glimpse of how South Korea, with its government-run healthcare system, could test so many people so fast.
As of this week, South Korea, a nation of 51 million, had tested about 250,000 people since Jan. 20, when the outbreak occurred there. In the United States, with a far higher population, less than 15,000 had been tested by Friday, according to published reports.
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California’s lack of statewide testing, compounded by the federal government’s inability to procure key chemicals needed for the tests, is one reason Silicon Valley has become ground zero for the virus statewide. As of Friday, Santa Clara County had reported 79 confirmed cases, and surrounding counties had reported many more.
According to Marc Brown, director of national communications for Kaiser, the medical group has set up only three of these drive-up testing sites. One in San Francisco, another in San Leandro, and this one, here in Redwood City.
The facilities are not permanent and change from day-to-day.
He said no sites have yet been set up in Southern California, and had no information about plans to do so. However, he said other regional centers, such as those in Colorado and the Washington, D.C., will be trying them out as early as this weekend.
“These aren’t for the general public,” he said, noting that only patients who are Kaiser members and have been provided an appointment with the facility by their doctor are permitted access.
The sites are not publicly disclosed, he said, because the point of the procedure is to reduce the risk of exposure that occurs in hospital or clinic waiting rooms — where several people can come into contact with one another and the virus can be transmitted. “We don’t want crowds showing up.”
Drive-through testing is also being tried in New Rochelle, N.Y. — where a large cluster of COVID 19 cases are located — and Philadelphia. The number of people tested are low, but New York’s governor was optimistic Friday.
“We’re partnering with Northwell and BioReference to run the state’s first drive-through testing facility and ensure the highest-risk population gets the tests they need to help us contain and combat this pandemic,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.


latimes--2020-03-14--Coronavirus cases rise in L.A. and California

California saw a rise Saturday in its number of coronavirus cases , with Los Angeles County reporting 11 more , bringing its total to 53 .
Two of the people among the most recent cases reported are hospitalized , the L.A. County Department of Public Health said in a news release .
Two cases are suspected to be related to travel and four had close contact with another confirmed case , officials said .
Two of the cases have an unidentified source of exposure , meaning they could be more evidence of “ community spread , ” officials said .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ up from 23 the day before ; in San Mateo County , the number increased from 20 to 26 .
Contra Costa County reported four new cases , bringing its total to 29 , and in Sacramento County , the number of cases rose from 17 to 29 .
Santa Clara County announced 17 additional cases , bringing the total there to 91 .
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 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ IS MORE , ” electronic signs over the 405 and 105 freeways in Los Angeles read Saturday morning .
“ AVOID GATHERINGS.
” Calling the outbreak “ one of the most historic public health challenges of our time , ” the health officer for Silicon Valley has issued an aggressive new ban , restricting public 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 .
On Saturday , Contra Costa County announced similar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health officer issuing an order prohibiting gatherings of 100 people or more in a single room or enclosed space .
Those who violate the order , which is in effect from midnight Sunday through March 31 , could be charged with a misdemeanor and face a fine or imprisonment in county jail , officials said .
Other counties canceled events and introduced new restrictions .
The Los Angeles County Animal Care and Control department said Saturday that its animal control officers would continue to respond to public safety and animal welfare calls , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reports and animal cruelty investigations , but that the department is deferring less urgent calls until further notice .
Pet owners who want to surrender their pets are asked to delay doing so , those who have found lost pets are asked to foster them temporarily instead of bringing them in , and those who seek to surrender healthy stray cats are asked to release them where they were trapped and bring them in after there is no longer a public health recommendation for social distancing , the department said .
Animal care @ @ @ @ @ @ @ licenses , and pet owners will be given a 30-day grace period for late license submissions .
The state now reports 247 confirmed cases and five deaths , with new cases being tallied every few hours .
But officials say many more have the virus but have not yet been tested .
In Riverside County , officials announced that a former patient at the Coachella Valley nursing home has the coronavirus , prompting them to test workers and patients at the facility .
The county public health department said the patient spent time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ before being transferred to a hospital .
The source of the virus remains unclear , but officials said the testing will occur as quickly as possible and that anyone who is infected will be isolated and treated .
“ Quick action is required when we are dealing with a vulnerable population like this , ” said Dr. Cameron Kaiser , Riverside County ’ s public health officer , in a statement .
Riverside County declared a state of emergency last week .
As of Saturday , it had 14 confirmed cases , four @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to travel , and 10 to have been acquired locally .
Amid the steady increase in cases in Santa Clara County , Stanford University announced a wave of changes to campus operations after an undergraduate student there tested positive for the virus .
The student is self-isolating , and university teams are working to reach out to the person ’ s close contacts , University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne announced in a letter to students Friday night .
As a result , during spring break and the spring quarter , the school “ will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ housing and dining for a very limited number of students — those who have no other option than to be here , ” the letter said .
They will prioritize international and homeless students , and those who “ have known severe health or safety risks.
” Students who do not fall into these categories must leave the campus by 5 p.m. Wednesday at the latest , the school said .
Those who remain are expected to stay on campus and not bring off-campus guests .
Social events will be canceled , dining @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and recreational areas will be closed , the school said .
Major school districts throughout California , including Los Angeles Unified , announced shutdowns Friday , joining at least 12 states that have ordered complete closures amid escalating attempts to slow the spread of the coronavirus .
The closure initially is scheduled to last two weeks , but a firm reopen date will depend on the status of the outbreak , which President Trump on Friday Speaking at a White House news conference on Saturday , Trump said he was considering domestic travel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” although he didn ’ t mention any particular spots .
“ If you don ’ t have to travel , I wouldn ’ t do it , ” he said .
“ We want this thing to end , ” he said .
In addition , his administration is extending the ban on travel from Europe to the United Kingdom and Ireland .
The restriction goes into effect on Monday at midnight , but U.S. citizens will be allowed to return home .
Trump also said that he took a test for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of mixed messages over whether he would do so .
“ I took the test last night , ” he said .
“ I decided I should based on the press conference last night.
” The president said Friday night that he would “ most likely ” get tested after interacting with Brazilian officials who tested positive for the virus .
But hours later , his physician released a memo suggesting that he would not take the test because he ’ s at “ LOW risk.
” Trump told reporters Saturday that he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ White House briefing room .
“ Totally normal , ” he said as he left the podium .
It was not clear when the president would know the results of his test .
In California , Orange County on Friday reported new suspected coronavirus cases , bringing its total to 13 .
The new tally came as the Orange County superintendent of schools said he supported suspending all operations for at least two weeks .
Courts across California , including Los Angeles , began grinding to a halt as well .
Santa Clara @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hit particularly hard , Friday in many traffic , family , civil and probate trials , as well as some criminal trials .
In San Diego County , all new civil trials were suspended for the next month .
Orange County will not start new civil trials until May 1 .
In Ventura County , courts will be closed early next week , then reopen on a limited basis for matters such as urgent criminal cases and temporary restraining orders .
Contra Costa Superior Court was closed for two weeks .
Fears over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attractions on Saturday .
Few are as popular with visitors from throughout the world as the TCL Chinese Theatre forecourt , where nearly 200 celebrities have immortalized their handprints in concrete .
Many visitors get a thrill from pressing their own hands into the exact places where their screen idols cast theirs .
The coronavirus pandemic has dampened enthusiasm for that kind of interactive experience .
Looking down at the slab impressed with the prints of Marilyn Monroe , Giulia Ragusa , 27 , of San Francisco , hesitated , then got down @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her hands into the hallowed depressions .
“ I ’ m not afraid !
I ’ m young and strong !
” she said , as her friend Carolina Benetti , 19 , snapped photos .
Mission accomplished , Ragusa sprang to her feet and asked , “ Hey , Carolina , get the hand sanitizer out of my backpack , please.
” On any other Saturday , hundreds of visitors would crowd the theater courtyard , pivoting on their heels as they snapped selfies or aimed video cameras in all directions .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ visitors like clockwork .
Costumed movie figures would be parading up and the boulevard in search of tips in exchange for photos .
But Hollywood souvenir salesman Nick Brooks , 34 , was having to face up to grim views he did not think were possible .
Standing forlornly on the Hollywood Walk of Fame , holding an umbrella in one hand and a large sign that read “ Everything ’ s $ 5 ” in the other , he said , “ I ’ ve worked this corner seven years and I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Business is down nearly 100 % .
” “ On a normal Saturday , without rain or coronavirus , I shout the sales pitch ’ Everything ’ s $ 5 !
” 200 times a day in perfect Chinese , ” he said , shaking his head .
“ Now , I say it four times a week because the place is almost empty .
“ Usually , this sidewalk is a river of people , 30 persons deep , ” he added .
“ But right now , for the first @ @ @ @ @ @ @ clear view all the way down to Highland Avenue , a quarter-mile away.
” Perhaps the greatest symbol of concern over the virus was at supermarkets , where many shelves were empty amid panic buying .
A Ralphs parking lot in Koreatown on Friday morning looked like a crowded DMV office .
Though parking spots were available , gridlock 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 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up purchases , dozens of customers waited in long queues that snaked through the market , past the fruit and vegetables 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 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 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 trip .
A property manager in Koreatown , Rush said her 5-year-old @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 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 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ 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 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sense .
The fact that there ’ s no toilet paper is insane .
I don ’ t understand how that is going to save you from anything.
” More cases were announced nationally , including 100 new ones in New York on Saturday .
Dr. Anthony Fauci , director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases , said Saturday that there are 2,226 coronavirus cases in the United States , including repatriations , and 50 deaths .
He said there are 532 new cases and nine new deaths .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Fauci said .
“ We will see more cases , and we will see more suffering and death.
” However , the country still has an opportunity to influence how fast and far the virus spreads , he said .

Joseph Serna, Alex Wigglesworth, Chris Megerian, Louis Sahagun

The fear of the coronavirus has Southern California residents stocking up. Above, empty shelves at a Target in Manhattan Beach.
California saw a rise Saturday in coronavirus cases, with Los Angeles and several other counties confirming more patients, bringing the statewide total to at least 288, officials said.
Los Angeles County reported 13 more cases and Long Beach one, bringing the county’s total to 54.
Two of the people among the most recent cases reported are hospitalized, the L.A. County Department of Public Health said in a news release. Two cases are suspected to be related to travel, and four had close contact with another confirmed case, officials said. Two of the cases have an unidentified source of exposure, meaning they could be more evidence of community spread, officials said.
In Long Beach, a woman in her 60s who was diagnosed with the virus was hospitalized in stable condition, the city said in a statement. She did not have contact with another known COVID-19 case and did not travel to an area where the virus is widespread, meaning her diagnosis may be the first instance of community spread in Long Beach, officials said.
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“This case highlights the need for continued vigilance and preparation, especially for those at higher risk of severe illness and those with underlying health conditions,” said Dr. Anissa Davis, the city health officer, in a statement.
The outbreak is interrupting the everyday life of residents in Southern California and beyond.
Ski resorts close
On Saturday, Mammoth Mountain Ski Area in the eastern Sierra and 14 other resorts in North America announced they will close Sunday until further notice, according to the Denver-based operator of the resorts, Alterra Mountain Co.
The company issued a brief statement attributing the closures to the outbreak and “the best interests of our guests, employees and local communities.”
Alterra is also closing June Mountain in the eastern Sierra, Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows near Lake Tahoe, and Big Bear Mountain Resort in the San Bernardino Mountains, among other resorts in Vermont, West Virginia, Utah and Washington state.
Vail Resorts, one of the world’s largest ski resort operators, also announced it would close its North American slopes, starting Sunday until March 22, to give management “time to reassess our approach for the rest of the season,” the company said in an online statement.
The Vail closures will include Northstar, Kirkwood and Heavenly ski resorts in the Lake Tahoe area, as well as resorts in Utah, Colorado and British Columbia, Canada.
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The ski resorts are among the growing list of businesses, including casinos and theme parks, that are temporarily closing as officials advise against large gatherings.
But it appeared in some places around the country that avoiding a large crowd was virtually impossible.
O’Hare Airport
In a series of tweets Saturday evening, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker chastised the federal government’s response at O’Hare Airport in Chicago, where posts on social media showed thousands of international passengers arriving from overseas shoulder to shoulder, stuck in hours-long lines to collect their baggage and be screened for entry.
“The federal government needs to get its s@#t together. NOW,” the governor tweeted.
But where possible, public officials are trying to ensure large groups are avoided.
Coastal Commission chairman tests positive
The California Coastal Commission is considering holding its April meeting online. On Saturday, its chairman, Steve Padilla, who also serves on the Chula Vista City Council, announced he had tested positive for the coronavirus and was being isolated at home.
He said he is healthy, strong and safe, but noted his symptoms, fever, body aches, headaches and chills, “came on very rapidly.”
“My main concern now is for the well-being of others. My friends and family have been informed and are taking the necessary steps — but it’s my duty to be transparent for the entire community,” he said in a video to his constituents.
L.A. parks, animal control, libraries and courts
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks announced that it would close all recreation and senior centers and cancel all activities there through at least April 4. All events that involve 50 people or more scheduled at Recreation and Parks locations are canceled, and new reservations for facilities or permits are suspended, the department said.
The Los Angeles County Animal Care and Control department said its animal control officers would continue to respond to public safety and animal welfare calls, such as dangerous dogs, dead animal reports and animal cruelty investigations, but that the department is deferring less urgent calls until further notice.
Pet owners who want to surrender their pets are asked to delay doing so, those who have found lost pets are asked to foster them temporarily instead of bringing them in, and those who seek to surrender healthy stray cats are asked to release them where they were trapped and bring them in after there is no longer a public health recommendation for social distancing, the department said.
Animal care centers are suspending the sale of pet licenses, and pet owners will be given a 30-day grace period for late license submissions.
And all of the county’s 86 library locations will be closed from Saturday through the end of the month.
“After careful consideration, and discussions with local health authorities, we have decided to close our libraries in an abundance of caution and to help prevent and limit the spread of COVID-19.” said Library Director Skye Patrick in a statement Saturday. “We understand the impact this can potentially cause on customers and will continue to monitor the situation closely to provide updates.”
Several library lobbies will remain open, and the public can still call the system with reference inquiries, officials said. More information can be found at the library system’s main website.
Courts across California, including in Los Angeles, are beginning to grind to a halt as well. Santa Clara County, where the coronavirus outbreak has hit particularly hard, announced delays Friday in many traffic, family, civil and probate trials, as well as some criminal trials.
The scene in Hollywood
Fears over the virus were evident at L.A. tourist attractions on Saturday. Few are as popular with visitors from throughout the world as the TCL Chinese Theatre forecourt, where nearly 200 celebrities have immortalized their handprints in concrete.
Many visitors get a thrill from pressing their own hands into the exact places their screen idols cast theirs. The coronavirus pandemic has dampened enthusiasm for that kind of interactive experience.
Looking down at the slab imprinted with the prints of Marilyn Monroe, Giulia Ragusa, 27, of San Francisco, hesitated, then got down on her knees, smiled and plunged her hands into the hallowed depressions.
“I’m not afraid! I’m young and strong!” she said, as her friend Carolina Benetti, 19, snapped photos.
Mission accomplished, Ragusa sprang to her feet and said, “Hey, Carolina, get the hand sanitizer out of my backpack, please.”
On any other Saturday, hundreds of visitors would crowd the theater courtyard, pivoting on their heels as they snapped selfies or aimed video cameras in all directions. Tour buses would be disgorging throngs of visitors.
California Even small neighborhood stores are getting raided by coronavirus hoarders It’s not just supermarkets and big box retailers that are struggling to keep toilet paper and groceries on the shelves. Liquor stores and other neighborhood businesses are too.
Costumed movie figures would be parading up and down the boulevard in search of tips in exchange for photos.
But Hollywood souvenir salesman Nick Brooks, 34, was having to face up to grim views he did not think were possible.
Standing forlornly on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, holding an umbrella in one hand and a large sign that read “Everything’s $5” in the other, he said, “I’ve worked this corner seven years and I’ve never seen it this slow. Business is down nearly 100%.”
“On a normal Saturday, without rain or coronavirus, I shout the sales pitch ‘Everything’s $5!’” 200 times a day in perfect Chinese,” he said, shaking his head. “Now, I say it four times a week because the place is almost empty.
“Usually, this sidewalk is a river of people, 30 persons deep,” he added. “But right now, for the first time, I’ve got a clear view all the way down to Highland Avenue, a quarter-mile away.”
Across California
Elsewhere, San Francisco reported 28 cases Saturday, up from 23 the day before; in San Mateo County, the number increased from 20 to 26. Contra Costa County reported four new cases, bringing its total to 29, and in Sacramento County, the number of cases rose from 17 to 29. Santa Clara County announced 17 additional cases, bringing the total there to 91.
Marin County announced two new cases Saturday, bringing its total to five. Neither had exposure to another known case, and both are believed to be the result of community spread, officials said.
“The first cases of community transmission of COVID-19 in Marin means we’re in a new stage of working to mitigate spread,” said Dr. Matt Willis, the county public health officer, in a statement. “We’ve been anticipating this.
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.
“COVID-19 LESS IS MORE,” electronic signs over the 405 and 105 freeways in Los Angeles read Saturday morning. “AVOID GATHERINGS.” Similar messages were displayed on all 700 of the state’s digital highway signs, Caltrans said.
Of California’s 288 confirmed cases, 70 are believed to be from community transmission and the cause of 66 of them are under investigation, the state health department said. The rest are a mix of confirmed person-to-person transmissions, related to travel or patients returning to the country after contracting the disease elsewhere.
Calling the outbreak “one of the most historic public health challenges of our time,” Santa Clara County health officer Dr. Sara Cody issued an aggressive new ban, restricting public 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.
On Saturday, Contra Costa County announced similar restrictions, with the county’s health officer issuing an order prohibiting gatherings of 100 people or more in a single room or enclosed space. Those who violate the order, which is in effect from midnight Sunday through March 31, could be charged with a misdemeanor and face a fine or imprisonment in county jail, officials said. Other counties canceled events and introduced new restrictions.
In Riverside County, officials announced that a former patient at the Coachella Valley nursing home has the coronavirus, prompting them to test workers and patients at the facility.
The county public health department said the patient spent time at Rancho Mirage Health and Rehabilitation Center before being transferred to a hospital.
Riverside County declared a state of emergency last week. As of Saturday, it had 14 confirmed cases, four of which are believed to be related to travel, and 10 to have been acquired locally.
Schools and universities react
Amid the steady increase in cases in Santa Clara County, Stanford University announced a wave of changes to campus operations after an undergraduate student there tested positive for the virus.
The student is self-isolating, and university teams are working to reach out to the person’s close contacts, university President Marc Tessier-Lavigne announced in a letter to students Friday night.
As a result, during spring break and the spring quarter, the school “will only be able to provide on-campus undergraduate housing and dining for a very limited number of students — those who have no other option than to be here,” the letter said. They will prioritize international and homeless students, and those who “have known severe health or safety risks.”
A graduate student at Stanford’s rival, UC Berkeley, has also contracted COVID-19, school officials announced. The individual does not live on campus or in the city of Berkeley and has self-isolated at home, the university said.
Major school districts throughout California, including Los Angeles Unified, announced shutdowns Friday, joining at least 12 states that have ordered complete closures amid escalating attempts to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
The closure initially is scheduled to last two weeks, but a firm reopen date will depend on the status of the outbreak, which President Trump on Friday declared a national emergency
President Trump and travel restrictions
Speaking at a White House news conference on Saturday, Trump said he was considering domestic travel restrictions “specifically from certain areas,” although he didn’t mention any particular spots.
“If you don’t have to travel, I wouldn’t do it,” he said. “We want this thing to end.”
In addition, his administration is extending the ban on travel from Europe to the United Kingdom and Ireland. The restriction goes into effect on Monday at midnight, but U.S. citizens will be allowed to return home.
Trump also said that he took a test for the coronavirus the night before after days of mixed messages over whether he would do so.
“I took the test last night,” he said. “I decided I should based on the press conference last night.”
The president said Friday night that he would “most likely” get tested after interacting with Brazilian officials who tested positive for the virus. But hours later, his physician released a memo suggesting that he would not take the test because he’s at “LOW risk.”
Trump told reporters Saturday that he had his temperature checked before entering the White House briefing room. “Totally normal,” he said as he left the podium. The White House announced later in the day that the president tested negative.
More cases nationwide
More cases were announced nationally, including 100 new ones in New York on Saturday.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Saturday that there are 2,226 coronavirus cases in the United States, including repatriations, and 50 deaths. He said there are 532 new cases and nine new deaths.
“We have not reached our peak,” Fauci said. “We will see more cases, and we will see more suffering and death.”
However, the country still has an opportunity to influence how fast and far the virus spreads, he said.


latimes--2020-03-15--L.A. County animal control deferring non-urgent calls due to coronavirus

It will not be business as usual for Los Angeles County ’ s Animal Care and Control in light of the coronavirus outbreak , officials announced Saturday .
While animal control officers will still respond to calls related to public safety , welfare calls related to dangerous , sick , or dead animals or cruelty investigations , other less urgent calls “ will be deferred until further notice , ” the department said in a statement .
“ Like much of the world , the ... department is adapting to the challenges caused by the recent outbreak of Covid-19 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is asked to renew pet licenses via mail or online , and new licenses will not be sold at animal care centers for the time being .
Pet owners will be given a 30-day grace period for submitting a license late , officials said .
The agency asks that anyone wishing to surrender a pet to delay that for the time being and to temporarily foster lost or found pets , if possible .
People wanting to surrender stray , healthy cats are asked to release them back to where they trapped them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ officials announced there were 54 confirmed coronavirus cases , an uptick of 13 from its previous tally .
Two cases are suspected to be related to travel and four had close contact with another confirmed case , officials said .
Two of the cases have an unidentified source of exposure , meaning they could be more evidence of community spread , officials said .
There are now at least 288 confirmed coronavirus patients in California , state officials said .

Danny Ubario, with L.A. County Animal Care and Control, holds an American alligator in 2017. Los Angeles County officials announced Saturday they would stop responding to non-urgent calls until further notice in light of the coronavirus outbreak.
It will not be business as usual for Los Angeles County’s Animal Care and Control in light of the coronavirus outbreak, officials announced Saturday.
While animal control officers will still respond to calls related to public safety, welfare calls related to dangerous, sick, or dead animals or cruelty investigations, other less urgent calls “will be deferred until further notice,” the department said in a statement.
“Like much of the world, the ... department is adapting to the challenges caused by the recent outbreak of Covid-19,” the department said.
The public is asked to renew pet licenses via mail or online, and new licenses will not be sold at animal care centers for the time being. Pet owners will be given a 30-day grace period for submitting a license late, officials said.
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The agency asks that anyone wishing to surrender a pet to delay that for the time being and to temporarily foster lost or found pets, if possible. People wanting to surrender stray, healthy cats are asked to release them back to where they trapped them.
On Saturday, Los Angeles County officials announced there were 54 confirmed coronavirus cases, an uptick of 13 from its previous tally.
Two cases are suspected to be related to travel and four had close contact with another confirmed case, officials said. Two of the cases have an unidentified source of exposure, meaning they could be more evidence of community spread, officials said.
There are now at least 288 confirmed coronavirus patients in California, state officials said.