Non-computer Corona virus thread

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Porthos

Porthos

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San Antonio Tx
I want to begin this thread with what my city is doing.
All restaurants pick-up or delivery only.
All non-essential business have been ordered closed. Movie theaters, bowling etc.
Grocery stores have modified the store hours. Buying limits are in effect.
Courts are closed.
Schools are closed until at least April 3rd.
The 10 wait on applying for unemployment has been lifted.
Bars are next to be closed.
Churches are closed.
 
Adelaide:
Woolworths Online has cancelled grocery "Click n' Collect"
Grocery delivery cancelled unless its an emergency.
Store item limits in effect.
(I'm sure its the same or similar at Coles, Aldi, Drakes and Foodland)

Many small businesses eg: coffee shops, cafe's, restaurants etc are closed.

and the worst thing of all?????

FOOTY SEASON WAS TO BE CANCELLED....ahahhahahahahahahahah

But its all good now, sanity has prevailed.....

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/mar/18/afl-season-2020-coronavirus


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I moved to a 55+ community in SW Florida and you would never know what's going on if you didn't turn on the news or social media. It's lovely here. I just keep working in my fortress and go out for stuff here and there. Walmart tonight had enough for me to buy what I needed. This is my new office view everyday. People are still out walking, dog walking, golf carting, bike riding, going swimming. All events are cancelled though
 
Dublin, Ireland: Schools closed, most shops, restaurants etc closed. A lot of joggers everywhere and families out strolling. “1-out, 1-in” policy in pharmacies leading to long but very spaced-out queues. Supermarkets may follow suit. No real panic, plenty of everything in the shops, except hand sanitiser. But, a whiskey distillery in Cork will apparently churn out barrels of the stuff in the next few days. Sad to see potential whiskey squandered in this way, but we live in desperate times.
 
Porthos said:
All restaurants pick-up or delivery only.
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This has been in effect up here in Gainesville since last week.
Porthos said:
Grocery stores have modified the store hours. Buying limits are in effect.
Click to expand...
The only limits here is for toilet paper and cases of water. 2 is the maximum.

Other than that, its a normal day. Although some mom and pop shops have closed on their own. I have reduced my hours to 10 am - 2 pm. and have stopped all onsite services except for critical emergencies.

I sent this following out to all my business and MSP clients yesterday:

Starting Wednesday, March 18, our shop hours will be reduced to 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. local time. We will revisit on an ongoing basis the decision to remain open with shorter hours, but our intention is to operate this way through Monday, April 6. Any services that can be accomplished remotely will be done remotely. Onsite services will be on a case-by-case basis. Critical services will be taken care of on an emergency basis. We know that many of our clients have scheduled onsite consultations, installations, services or repairs with us. If you have any concerns, we will be happy to partner with you to reschedule your appointment. Simply call 940-668-1800 or 844-222–PCMD, and we will take care of it.

Starting Monday, March 23, and at least for the next two weeks after, we will serve our customers through limited access to our shop for drop-offs and pickups. This will be done with the intent of substantially reducing the number of people in our shop and hours will remain 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. local time.

There will only be one employee in the shop, and customers will be able to:
  • Take advantage of limited services within the shop, including purchasing a product or service or requesting specific services. Our employee will maintain the recommended social distancing separation of 6 feet
  • Drop off a product for servicing or repair
  • Pick up a product that has been serviced or repaired
All devices coming in for service will be sanitized prior to handling and servicing. All devices being picked up will be sanitized prior to the customer handling the device.

We had plans to go to Austin to visit our daughter next week, but I just cancelled it without a hitch from AirBnB for a full refund.

Reservation canceled
You’ll receive your full refund within 10 business days.
 
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Porthos said:
Bars are next to be closed.
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As of midnight last night they are closed by city ordnance.
The mayor says this new declaration lasts seven days. However, on Thursday he says City Council will vote on whether to extend it for 30 days.
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Terry Corless owns four different establishments along the River Walk like Murphy's Sports Bar.

"It is apocalyptic, he said. "It is a surreal environment."

On Wednesday, he tearfully laid off 200 employees. Several other River Walk establishments had already closed ahead of the midnight deadline.

"Parents are going home crying," she said. "Mothers of three kids are wondering what they're going to give their kids for dinner, tonight."


The second-oldest eatery on the River Walk, 'The Republic of Texas' left with no choice. William Grinnan, owner of the family-owned business said he has never seen anything like this since they opened nearly 50 years ago.

"Economies get into this type of depression," he said. "You never think it is going to be in your backyard. But, today it is."
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SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio Water Systems is warning customers not flush anything other than toilet paper while the city experiences a toilet paper shortage.

Panic buying led to a toilet paper shortage across the city and throughout many big store chains.

That has led people to resort to other types of paper to use as an alternative to toilet paper.

One Twitter, SAWS warned people not to flush wipes (something they have been saying for many years), paper towels, kitchen rolls, or newspaper, saying it caused "all sorts of problems". SAWS captioned the


Local stores, include H-E-B says they are working around the clock to replenish the supply of toilet paper and other items that are hard to find right now.
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South Florida here. Editing what you posted @Porthos as most of it applies here as well

All restaurants pick-up or delivery only.
All non-essential business have been ordered closed. Movie theaters, bowling etc.
Grocery stores have modified the store hours. Buying limits are in effect.
Courts are closed.
Schools are closed until at least April 15th
Bars cannot server alcohol for the next 30 days.
Courts have been closed
 
Your PCMD said:
our shop hours will be reduced to 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. local time. We will revisit on an ongoing basis the decision to remain open with shorter hours, but our intention is to operate this way through Monday, April 6.
Click to expand...

You may want to consider expanding hours instead. Same as a curfew, shortening working hours tend to push people closer together in time, and this is probably not what you want. Longer open times, maybe by prior appointment only, may provide better spacing of people. Plus maybe some liberal use of alcohol to disinfect objects and a fierce UV lamp.That does however significantly depend on your specific situation, including how many in-person customers you expect to have.
 
Alexey said:
You may want to consider expanding hours instead.
Click to expand...
I thought about that, however, my MSP is blowing up. I worked until 2 am doing remote servicing last night. Currently, I am raking in more money doing it this way than having the shop opened. I started this morning at 8 am (normal shop hours are 10-6) with a call from a dentist office, I finished that up about an hour ago and fired off an invoice and they already paid for it. I have 4 more lined up for remote services after lunch and 3 for tomorrow, and I am usually closed on the weekends.
 
Whelp...our state got the "Shutdown" notice from our...ugh...governor. Around 3 this afternoon the announcement came out.
I got so much coming next week for deliveries...clients ordering laptops and AIOs to "work from home". Guess I'll have 'em shipped to my house.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
Whelp...our state got the "Shutdown" notice from our...ugh...governor. Around 3 this afternoon the announcement came out.
I got so much coming next week for deliveries...clients ordering laptops and AIOs to "work from home". Guess I'll have 'em shipped to my house.
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everyone? Are we affected? isn't computer service a necessity? Don't people need communication?
 
pcpete said:
everyone? Are we affected? isn't computer service a necessity?
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I think it depends who, or what businesses, you support. Which highlights how complicated and, quite frankly, unworkable this is. For example, you could consider the job of an Uber driver as non-essential for the most part, but there will be medical workers who rely on Uber to get to work, especially when most public transport systems have been shut down.

And what about delivery drivers? -- potentially spreading the virus from door to door -- providing a service that could be considered essential only while they are delivering essential goods, such as food or medication. But what if they're delivering non-essential items, such as computer parts needed to assist the medical profession? Or they could be delivering other tech items that may be deemed non-essential, such as a new phone, SIM card, etc, which might be required by an Uber driver to enable him to do his job or as an lifeline for an ailing person in self-isolation.

And then there's those who directly and indirectly support the infrastructures we all rely on -- providing communication, energy, clean water and sanitation for homes, businesses and hospitals. Those services are likely to be deemed essential, but what about the services that they rely on, or the services people who support such services rely on to get to work or provide the tools and equipment they require? Where do you draw the line?

IMO, we should just be focusing on protecting/isolating the vulnerable and working hard to defeat this. Mass-isolation will, at best, delay mass-infection, a little.
 
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pcpete said:
everyone? Are we affected? isn't computer service a necessity? Don't people need communication?
Click to expand...

I'm sure we could argue our way out of "the fine"....if some enforcement wanted to try to force us to close. I'm not worried about that.
We do have healthcare clients ..after all....so one could argue since healthcare systems run on computer systems...and we support those computer systems...we're also essential.

That line has worked for me in the past...for getting out of jury duty.

Truth is...we can work from home. Yeah...not as efficient as at the office...where we all have multiple monitors (3x of us run quad 24" and 3x others run triple 24"). We all took a second monitor for home..so we can run our laptops dual screen at least.

And we have the "service area" where we can unbuckle lots of computers. And the convenience of receiving deliveries there.

BUT...for this "stay at home" to be effective...the more people that participate and play this game...the more effective it is in flattening the curve, and the sooner we can all "get back to normal".

We've switch to "remote only" mode. As...if we go onsite, we're higher exposure...touching peoples work areas, keyboards, mice, desk areas, etc. My hands look like alligator paws...so dry from hourly wipes in sanitizer gel.
 
The problem with statistics is there is no guaranteed, absolute "truth". I learned a long time ago that designing an analysis to provide a certain statistically significant outcome is not that difficult.

At any rate I'm far more worried about the economic impact than the health impact. We'll be piling on a lot of debt to an already towering pile. I guess the only upside is that the rest of the world will still be buying it since they don't really have any other secure ways to safely park large sums of money.

And on a related note. Came across the article below a little while ago. Makes for some interesting reading.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ion-people-next-time-it-might-not-be-a-drill/
 
I am coming, more and more, to believe that there is legitimate reason to question whether the draconian measures being taken are anything beyond panic and the desire to be seen as "doing something." And based on several recent articles in the New York Times by experts in the field of epidemiology, or opinion writers making direct reference to same (and providing the citations), I'm not alone. There's even a question as to whether "flattening the curve" is necessarily a good thing.

The problem is, we will never know. As is pointed out in one of these pieces, if disaster is averted then politicians and those calling for the most stringent measures will claim their actions were justified, if they're not averted then the claim will be made that it was because they were not followed.

It’s Dangerous to Be Ruled by Fear by Bret Stevens, Opinion Columnist

Is Our Fight Against Coronavirus Worse Than the Disease? by David L. Katz, Founding Director - Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center

and, posted a few days ago, but worth repeating, Some Ask a Taboo Question: Is America Overreacting to Coronavirus?

There seems to be a complete unwillingness to acknowledge that there will be deaths, no matter what we do, and that aggressive respiratory treatment may not help much, if at all (see Lancet article, though preliminary, Respiratory support for patients with COVID-19 infection by Silvio A Ñamendys-Silva, Published:March 05, 2020).

Risk analysis is about balancing and acknowledging that, truly, for the world at large there are definitely "things worse than death."
 
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