Governors In Florida, Hawaii, Alaska Make Rare Move To Put Up ‘Not Welcome’ Sign To Tourists

The New York Times: Governors Tell Outsiders From ‘Hot Zone’ To Stay Away As Virus Divides States
Florida has a message for New Yorkers: Please don’t visit. And if you do, prepare to sit in quarantine or risk jail. Hawaii, which also thrives on tourism, is asking visitors to stay away for a month. And Alaska is requiring a 14-day quarantine for anyone entering from, as Alaskans put it, Outside. It is a rare circumstance in the United States, a country where travel between states is generally welcomed and often only noticed in counts of tourism visits, that states are suddenly looking for ways to discourage residents of other states from coming into theirs. (Mazzei, Bosman and Bogel-Burroughs, 3/25)

Politico: Florida’s Move To Pull In Its Welcome Mat May Draw Court Challenge
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' move to secure his state border against the coronavirus invader is an invitation to a legal challenge that could rise as high as the Supreme Court because it may violate the Constitution. On Tuesday, the Republican governor sent the National Guard to greet travelers at Florida’s biggest airports. Passengers arriving on direct flights from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, where the number of infections is high, are required to quarantine for 14 days. Law enforcement will keep tabs on their whereabouts. The executive order also applies to people arriving by car, DeSantis said. (Sarkissian and Snyder, 3/25)

Politico: Republican Governors Buck Trump And Stick With Social Distancing
Republican governors are following the advice of public health experts and embracing coronavirus lockdowns and business closings despite President Donald Trump's push to reopen parts of the country by Easter. Trump's press to scrap social distancing in all but the most virus-ravaged areas — and statements implying the fight to contain the disease have turned a corner — have rankled some GOP governors consumed with efforts to contain transmission and ease the burden on stressed local health systems. (Ehley, 3/25)

Los Angeles Times: Will California's Coronavirus Crisis Look Like Italy's Soon?
It begins each day in the early afternoon: Patients stream into hospitals with fevers, shakes, chills and breathing problems. In Italy, the country hardest hit by the new coronavirus, it’s been happening seemingly like clockwork. “It’s really hard to see so many people sick at the same time,” Dr. Roberto Cosentini, a doctor in the northern city of Bergamo near Milan, said in a podcast for emergency room physicians. “It’s like a regular daily earthquake.” Is this what’s in store for California? (Lin, 3/25)

CNN: US Coronavirus: California Coronavirus Cases Doubling Every Three To Four Days As US Death Toll Nears 1,000 
Officials are racing to get a handle on the novel coronavirus as the number of deaths nears 1,000 in the United States and cases in two of the hardest hit states -- California and New York -- quickly multiply. "We originally thought that it would be doubling every six to seven days and we see cases doubling every three to four days," said Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency. (Holcombe, 3/26)

Kaiser Health News: Public Health Officials To Newsom: Lockdown Won’t Work Without Enforcement
When Gov. Gavin Newsom last week ordered nearly all 40 million Californians to stay in their homes to combat the spread of COVID-19, he set the tone for the nation, becoming the first to issue a statewide lockdown. Governors who had previously resisted quickly followed suit, including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. But one week into the lockdown, epidemiologists tracking rates of transmission in California and the United States worry that Newsom’s shelter-in-place order will be less effective in controlling new infections without stronger enforcement. (Hart, 3/26)

Kaiser Health News: California Lawmakers Struggle To Conduct Business Amid COVID-19 Lockdown
The weekend before California shuttered its Capitol building, Senate leader Toni Atkins spent hours on the phone ― taking the roles of a student learning from epidemiologists and a legislator discussing with colleagues how the country’s most populous state should respond to the COVID-19 crisis. Like many lawmakers from New York to Washington state, Atkins and her fellow Sacramento legislators find themselves in uncharted territory. Legislative sessions are on hold. Sweeping initiatives are shelved. State budgets are already squeezed by massive spending on COVID-19. (Young, 3/25)

KQED: Gov. Newsom Reaches Deal With Major Banks To Suspend Mortgage Payments, Foreclosures For 90 Days
Four of the nation’s five largest banks have agreed to delay mortgage payments and suspend foreclosures for California homeowners for up to 90 days, as the state continues to respond to the coronavirus outbreak.On Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he had reached agreements with Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Citibank and US Bank — along with 200 state chartered banks and credit unions. The deal, he said, only applies to California customers who have been directly impacted by the pandemic and its economic fallout. Bank of America agreed to only a 30-day suspension of mortgages and foreclosures, he added. (Baldassari and Solomon, 3/25)

The Wall Street Journal: Texas’ Coronavirus Response Is Keep It Local, As More States Move To Lockdowns
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is used to overruling the state’s major cities on a host of issues. With the new coronavirus, he is leaving it to the locals. As a result, some Texans face orders to stay inside for all but essential activities while others are still free to be out and about. Mr. Abbott is resisting calls for a statewide stay-at-home order, while cities and towns this week each make their own call over how to deal with the pandemic. (Findell, 3/25)

Politico: Murphy: New York Is The ‘Canary In The Coal Mine’ And We’re Right Behind
New Jersey officials have been slow to set an exact timeline for when they project the state’s already overburdened health system will experience a surge in coronavirus-related hospitalizations. But with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo tallying his daily case count in the thousands, New Jersey may not be far behind, Gov. Phil Murphy said during his daily press briefing on Wednesday. (Sutton, 3/25)

NBC News: As Florida Coronavirus Cases Surge, Spring Breakers Express Regret
The clip went viral. "If I get corona, I get corona. At the end of the day, I'm not gonna let it stop me from partying," Brady Sluder, a spring breaker in Miami, said last week. Now, as the United States is at about 55,000 cases of the coronavirus, including more than 780 deaths, and is on track to become the new center of the pandemic, he has revised his message: "Don't be arrogant and think you're invincible like myself." (Kesslen, 3/25)

ABC News: Releases, Infections, Fear: U.S. Coronavirus Crisis In Jails And Prisons Looms 
As the COVID-19 virus continues its relentless march across the nation, the looming crisis inside America’s jails and prisons appears to be deepening, as corrections officials dig in to prevent outbreaks in the nation's more than 6,000 prisons and jails. So far this week, a total of 23 inmates have escaped correctional facilities in two states after at least one inmate had tested positive at each of two facilities -- and by late Wednesday a dozen remained at large, officials said. (Francescani, Pezenik, Barr and Weinraub, 3/26)

WBUR: Inside One Jail's Health Care Problems And ‘Culture Of Impunity’ 
Corrections officers play a leading role in how medical care is handled at county jails in Massachusetts. They can save lives in emergencies and pass vital information on to medical staff. They also can delay care. A WBUR investigation found that when guards ignored sick inmates or failed to react to serious medical complaints, it often led to further suffering, and even deaths. (Willmsen and Healy, 3/25)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Citing Coronavirus Danger At New Orleans Jail, Public Defenders Call For Broad Inmate Release 
Citing the growing number of New Orleans jail staffers infected with the novel coronavirus, the city’s public defenders on Wednesday filed what their chief called an unprecedented motion asking judges for the blanket release of "vulnerable and low-risk” inmates. (Sledge, 3/25)

The Washington Post: 1,000 Coronavirus Cases In The DMV
The tally of novel coronavirus cases in the Washington region climbed past 1,000 Wednesday as Maryland, Virginia and the District reported their largest single-day increases — a grim markerthat illustrates both the continued spread of the virus and the fact that more testing is being done to detect it. Maryland announced 74 additional cases, bringing the state’s total to 424, and extended its closure of public schools another four weeks, through April 24. Virginia reported 101 additional cases, for a total of 392. The District reported 48 new cases Wednesday, including an eight-week-old infant, for a total caseload of 235. (Olivo, Wiggins, Schneider and Simon, 3/26)

CBS News: Southern States Face Spike In Coronavirus Cases
The coronavirus is spreading rapidly in the South, and hospitals are becoming overwhelmed. Louisiana, Florida and Georgia are facing alarming spikes, with more than 4,700 cases and 125 deaths in those states alone. There are more cases in the New Orleans area than there are in Los Angeles County — and Los Angeles County is 25 times larger. In just over two weeks, the number of cases in Louisiana has skyrocketed to almost 1,800. (Villafranca, 3/25)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Coronavirus Cases Reported At Archdiocesan Complexes For Elderly, Disabled; More Await Test Results
An Archdiocese of New Orleans nonprofit which provides affordable housing to low-income elderly and disabled people has announced that residents or employees at nine of their 21 properties across the metro area have tested positive for the new coronavirus or await test results for the disease. In the announcement Tuesday, Christopher Homes described the number of residents and employees affected by the virus – which causes the potentially deadly respiratory illness COVID-19 – as “small.” (Vargas, 3/25)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Immigrants, Refugees In Georgia Vulnerable Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
Georgia was home to an estimated 400,000 unauthorized immigrants in 2016. Already rattled by the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, many work in some of Georgia’s largest industries, including hospitality, farming and poultry processing. (Redmon, 3/25)

Boston Globe: Baker Orders Schools Closed Until Early May 
Governor Charlie Baker on Wednesday extended the shutdown of Massachusetts schools until early May in the latest measure to contain the coronavirus, as the number of diagnosed infections across the state jumped by more than half in a single day. Baker said all schools, public and private, and all nonemergency day care facilities would be closed until May 4. On March 17, schools were closed across the state for three weeks, while Boston had closed its schools until late April. (Finucane, Ebbert and Vaznis, 3/25)

Boston Globe: As Coronavirus Spreads, Medical Examiner Tells Staff To Take ‘Bare Minimum’ Of Cases 
The state’s chief medical examiner, whose office is responsible for investigating unexplained deaths statewide, has told staff members to cut their “workload to a bare minimum” and to no longer accept certain “flu-like” cases as the deadly coronavirus expands across Massachusetts. The directives from Dr. Mindy J. Hull, detailed in internal e-mails obtained by the Globe, could scale back the type of cases the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner handles as she seeks to limit her staff’s exposure to COVID-19. (Stout, 3/25)