School Closures, Restaurant And Bar Restrictions, Nursing Home Visitor Bans: States’ Orders Bring Everyday-Life To A Halt

CNN: Here's A Complete List Of Every State Health Department's Coronavirus Website
As the novel coronavirus outbreak continues to spread across the US and its territories, health departments have created landing pages where people can go to get the latest information about the virus in their specific location. Here is a list of those pages for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and Guam. (Vera, 3/16)

Boston Globe: Baker Closes Schools, Restricts Restaurants, Bans Gatherings Over 25 As Community Spread Of Coronavirus Seen In 7 Mass. Counties 
Governor Charlie Baker on Sunday night ordered all public and private schools across Massachusetts to close for three weeks, beginning Tuesday, and has limited all restaurants to only takeout and delivery as of Tuesday, in his most sweeping action yet to slow the increasing rate of the spread of the novel coronavirus. (Belman and Hilliard, 3/15)

Boston Globe: ‘These Are Crazy Numbers’: Boston Doctors Warn That Italy May Be A Preview Of A Coronavirus Outbreak Here
Doctors here warn that unless dramatic action is taken now to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the outbreak threatens to dangerously overload the Massachusetts health care system. Several measures have been implemented across the state to decelerate the pace of contagion. Colleges are sending students home. School districts have suspended classes. (Pan, 3/13)

Boston Globe: Mass. Increases Coronavirus Testing, ‘But It’s Not Nearly Enough,’ Some Say
Massachusetts on Sunday announced a big jump in the number of residents who have been tested for the Covid-19 virus in just the previous day, but public health experts warned that the state remains a long way from testing enough people every day to sufficiently halt the spread of the disease. Officials said 969 people had been tested for coronavirus as of Sunday evening, up from 475 Saturday. (Hilliard, 3/15)

Boston Globe: A Ray Of Hope In Coronavirus Outbreak: Mass. Loosens Rules On Who Can Get Tested 
Amid mounting frustration over access to coronavirus testing, the Baker administration on Friday released new guidelines to health care providers that significantly relax rules on who can be tested, a move doctors say should substantially increase access. But it remains unclear exactly how many tests the state is actually completing. (Lazar and Fernandes, 3/13)

Boston Globe: City Of Boston To Launch Coronavirus Fund For Families Hit Hardest By Crisis 
As Greater Boston faces one of the biggest public health crises in its history — with schools shuttering, businesses running remotely, and health care workers bracing for a spike in patients — leaders in the city’s business and philanthropic communities are stepping up to help those who stand to be hurt the most. On Monday, the City of Boston will announce a new fund to assist families affected by the sprawling coronavirus outbreak. (Nanos, 3/15)

Boston Globe: Mass General President: We Should Be In ‘War-Like’ Preparations To Combat Coronavirus 
The president of Massachusetts General Hospital on Sunday compared the coronavirus crisis to a time of war and said he’s worried about the shortage of personal protective equipment needed to keep doctors and nurses safe as they confront rising numbers of infected patients. (McCluskey, 3/15)

Boston Globe: City Officials Scramble To Stop Potential Spread Of Coronavirus Among The Homeless
Around the time health officials confirmed the first Covid-19 infection in the United States, local homeless service providers shared tips on basic hygiene and infection prevention. Shortly later, shelter operators began stepping up daily cleanings and doling out hand sanitizer. Now as the global coronavirus pandemic continues to grow, city officials and advocates for the homeless are scrambling to develop a plan to head off a potential spread of the virus among this especially vulnerable group. (Coleman, 3/13)

Boston Globe: Two Brigham And Women’s Providers Infected With Coronavirus 
Two health care providers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston are infected with the coronavirus, and the hospital is contacting patients and staff who may have been exposed. In a memo to staff Saturday, hospital leaders said they are in close contact with state and city public health officials and are following their guidance about how to proceed. (Kowalczyk, 3/15)

Boston Globe: MassHealth Waives 30-Day Supply Limits For Prescription Drugs 
The state’s Medicaid organization Friday said it will allow pharmacies to dispense up to a 90-day supply of most prescription drugs for the low-income residents it serves, waiving a 30-day supply limit in response to the spreading coronavirus that has left many residents homebound. MassHealth ― which insures about 1.8 million Massachusetts residents, including about 312,000 seniors and people with disabilities ― also said it will permit them to order early refills of their prescriptions to ensure residents have adequate supplies of medicine during the public health crisis. (Weisman, 3/13)

Boston Globe: SJC Orders Halt To All Jury Trials In Mass. Courts While Some Police Cut Direct Contact With Citizens 
The battle against the spread of the coronavirus moved into law enforcement and Massachusetts courthouses on Friday as the state’s high court ordered a halt to new jury trials until April 21. Meanwhile, some police departments are terminating non-emergency in-station visits from the public for the immediate future. In two orders issued Friday, the Supreme Judicial Court ordered a temporary halt to new jury trials in both criminal and civil cases and put a freeze on grand juries, which are used by prosecutors to bring charges in the most serious violent crimes. (Ellement, Estes and Alanez, 3/13)

WBUR: Some Senior Care Facilities In Mass. Ban Non-Essential Visitors
One of the largest senior care operators in Mass. — Hebrew SeniorLife — announced Friday afternoon that no non-essential visitors will be allowed to visit its nursing homes, assisted living facilities and other short- and long-term care centers because of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. (Wasser, 3/13)

Providence Journal: Raimondo Asks Child-Care Centers To Close, Reports No New Coronavirus Cases 
Gov. Gina Raimondo is directing child-care centers to close this week, a change from her request from last week that they remain open. Raimondo announced early Sunday afternoon that testing since Saturday has not found any additional positive cases of coronavirus in the state. The number of positive cases in the state remains at 20. (List, 3/15)

The Hill: Washington State To Close Restaurants And Bars Over Coronavirus 
Restaurants and bars in Washington state will temporarily suspend dine-in service amid the coronavirus outbreak as officials attempt to stop the spread of the virus, the governor announced Sunday. Gov. Jay Inslee (D) tweeted that no restaurant in the state will be permitted to serve in-person customers for the foreseeable future, with take-out and delivery services still permitted. (Bowden, 3/15)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Coronavirus Cases Double In Louisiana And Kill First Patient; Officials Fear High Infection Rate
A New Orleans-area resident has become the first person in Louisiana to die from the novel coronavirus, officials said Saturday, underscoring the high stakes as health officials race to stop a disease they fear is spreading at a faster rate in Louisiana than almost anywhere else in the U.S.Gov. John Bel Edwards' office announced the news. The virus took the life of a 58-year-old Orleans Parish resident with underlying health conditions who was hospitalized at Touro Infirmary, it said. (Sledge and Karlin, 3/14)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: 'It’s Not Clear': Coronavirus Test Shortages Still Bedevil Louisiana Patients
Even as President Donald Trump promised that more coronavirus tests are coming soon, Louisiana health officials on Friday urged doctors to send samples from patients who don’t meet the state’s strict testing criteria to private labs that are rapidly ramping up their capacity. But patients and doctors in the New Orleans area, the heart of Louisiana’s coronavirus outbreak, still said they are being thwarted in their attempts to obtain tests, and many worried about how much the tests or related hospital and doctor visits will cost. (Sledge, 3/13)

Dallas Morning News: Five UT Southwestern Faculty In Quarantine After Exposure To New Coronavirus
Five faculty members from UT Southwestern Medical Center are in quarantine in their homes after they were exposed Wednesday to someone at a medical conference who later tested positive for COVID-19.In an email to the radiation oncology department of the medical center, which was obtained by The Dallas Morning News, Robert Timmerman, a professor in the department, said the exposure happened at a conference on the UTSW campus Wednesday morning. The person had a rapid test Wednesday after becoming ill and received the positive result Thursday. (Martin, 3/13)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Courts, Prisons Grapple With Potential Coronavirus Spread
Worried about the spread of the coronavirus, the Superior Court chief judges of Fulton, Cobb and Gwinnett counties have ordered a delay in all court services.Trials will be suspended. Juries won’t be selected. The order covers the next 14 days in Gwinnett, with Fulton and Cobb courts on hiatus for 30 days. Fulton Chief Judge Christopher Brasher said the virus “substantially endangers or infringes upon the normal functioning of the judicial system.” (Boone and Sharpe, 3/13)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: VA Hospital In Decatur Sees First Cases Of Suspected Coronavirus
The Veterans Affairs hospital in Decatur is reporting two suspected cases of COVID-19, according to emails to medical staff.The patients tested initially positive Wednesday evening, and the tests are awaiting confirmation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to emails that a hospital staffer shared with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on the condition of anonymity. (Quinn, 3/13)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Emory To Postpone Elective Surgeries Amid Coronavirus Outbreak
One of metro Atlanta’s largest health care groups is postponing elective surgeries for the next two weeks as the system confronts increasing patient demands amid the coronavirus outbreak.Emory Healthcare said Sunday it will postpone “all inpatient and outpatient elective surgical and procedural cases,” starting Monday. Procedural cases include such things as colonoscopies. After two weeks, Emory Healthcare said it will evaluate week-to-week. (Trubey, 3/15)

WBUR: Harvard Ramping Down Lab Research, 'Low Productivity' Likely To Last At Least 6-8 Weeks 
The deans of Harvard's medical, dental and public health schools are asking research staffers and students to help develop a "rapid ramp-down" strategy for most research to enable the social distancing called for in the coronavirus outbreak.In a community email sent out Friday morning, the three deans write that lab chiefs will aim to enter a period of "low productivity" by this coming Wednesday, and it "will likely last at least six to eight weeks." (Goldberg, 3/13)

Detroit Free Press: Coronavirus: Oakland County Releases List Of Exposure Places, Dates
There are now three cases of COVID-19 in Oakland County, two of which were announced late Thursday night. Both new cases are adult men. One has no known travel history. The other man traveled in the U.S.  (Shamus, 3/13)

Detroit Free Press: Number Of Positive Coronavirus Cases Rises To 53 In Michigan
The number of positive coronavirus cases is now up to 53 in Michigan, the state Department of Health and Human Services announced late Sunday night.It announced 20 additional positive cases on Sunday from the day before. Among the 20 new cases announced Sunday was a male child from Oakland County who had contact with a person with the coronavirus. (Hall, 3/15)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Philadelphia School District Meal Pick-Up Locations Announced For Families Who Use Breakfast, Lunch Service
Philadelphia Schools Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. on Saturday released a list of 30 meal pickup locations for families who depend on school-provided breakfast and lunch service while schools are closed. (Walsh, 3/14)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Doctor’s Coronavirus Closes A Pediatric ICU In Philly To New Patients; How Many Were Exposed Is Unknown
St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children closed its intensive care unit to new patients and the Level 1 trauma unit shut down Friday, March 13, after a physician tested positive for coronavirus. The rest of the hospital remained open, according to a memo sent to Drexel staff and students by the university’s president, John Fry, on Saturday and obtained by The Inquirer on Sunday.St. Christopher’s is jointly owned by Drexel and Tower Health, and operated by Tower. (Gantz and Whelan, 3/15)

The New York Times: ‘We’ve Got A Monster That’s Looming’: West Virginia Is The Last State Without A Coronavirus Case
There are plenty of reasons West Virginia, as of Saturday afternoon, was the only state in the country with no confirmed cases of the coronavirus. It is a small state and mostly rural, much of its population already socially distanced by hollows and mountains. It is a state, as the West Virginia health secretary said at a news conference on Friday, that doesn’t “have a lot of international travel.” Still, at that same news conference, Gov. Jim Justice was bluntly realistic. (Wines and Robertson, 3/14)

The New York Times: A Sunday Without Church: In Crisis, A Nation Asks, ‘What Is Community?’
It was Sunday morning, and the vast parking lots of Bridgeway Community Church sat empty. Instead of greeting thousands of worshipers, volunteers stood in the damp cold, ready to explain to anyone who might not have heard that services are now online only, at least until the threat of Covid-19 has passed. (Dias, 3/15)

The Associated Press: Illinois Shuts Down Bars, Restaurants Due To Coronavirus
The governor of Illinois on Sunday ordered all bars and restaurants in his state to close amid the threat of the new coronavirus, and officials elsewhere in the country said they were considering similar restrictions after revelers ignored warnings against attending large gatherings. "The time for persuasion and public appeals is over,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said. “This is not a joke. No one is immune to this.” (3/15)