Apple Park employees told to shelter in place as San Francisco enacts coronavirus lockdown...
Six counties in the San Francisco Bay Area issued a shelter in place mandate to residents on Monday in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19, likely impacting employees at Apple Park in Cupertino, Calif.

The shelter-in-place orders impact nearly 7 million Bay Area residents, including Apple employees in Santa Clara County.
Wider containment measures were instituted on Monday when officials issued shelter in place orders for the counties of San Francisco, Marin, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Alameda and Contra Costa, according to the Associated Press.
Those orders advise residents to venture outside only for necessities for three weeks starting Tuesday. They don't, however, apply to people who provide "essential services," such as those in public safety, sanitation or the medical field.
The order impacts nearly 7 million residents and includes Apple's headquarters of Cupertino, which is located in Santa Clara County, as well as the city of Berkeley.
Previous local government mandates barred large gatherings, but the rapid spread of COVID-19 has prompted companies in the Bay Area have to encouraged employees to work from home.
California has at least 335 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and six confirmed deaths due to the virus. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday also called on residents age 65 or older and other high-risk populations to isolate at home, the Sacramento Bee reported.
Los Angeles also issued a lockdown order instructing many businesses to close. In San Diego, California's second-largest city, the Superior Court has begun telling potential jurors to ignore their summons.

The shelter-in-place orders impact nearly 7 million Bay Area residents, including Apple employees in Santa Clara County.
Wider containment measures were instituted on Monday when officials issued shelter in place orders for the counties of San Francisco, Marin, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Alameda and Contra Costa, according to the Associated Press.
Those orders advise residents to venture outside only for necessities for three weeks starting Tuesday. They don't, however, apply to people who provide "essential services," such as those in public safety, sanitation or the medical field.
The order impacts nearly 7 million residents and includes Apple's headquarters of Cupertino, which is located in Santa Clara County, as well as the city of Berkeley.
Previous local government mandates barred large gatherings, but the rapid spread of COVID-19 has prompted companies in the Bay Area have to encouraged employees to work from home.
California has at least 335 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and six confirmed deaths due to the virus. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday also called on residents age 65 or older and other high-risk populations to isolate at home, the Sacramento Bee reported.
Los Angeles also issued a lockdown order instructing many businesses to close. In San Diego, California's second-largest city, the Superior Court has begun telling potential jurors to ignore their summons.
Comments
To be honest, I'm not that worried about this whole thing, though I am prepared and am well stocked up on all sorts of items. I even had some masks lying around that I had before the virus ever came, but I'm not using those when I go outside, because I think it looks ridiculous. We're not talking about the black plague here.
Nothing will stop me from getting my Indian food for dinner tonight.
2) I went into Home Depot in late January to buy a replacement 3M 6001 cartridges for the crew working on my home improvements. I do the precision stuff myself but hire out for the grunt work, like sanding off all the old paint. They were out of everything. I was able to still find them on Amazon (at a normal price) so I bought them there. I guess I need to have some backups of those, too, in my emergency pack.
3) Indian food take out? If that's what everyone is earring then it's no wonder everyone is buying up all the TP.
2) Yes, there have been insane amounts of hoarding these past few weeks and many places are sold out of many items. Amazon and ebay have basically banned the selling of many types of items related to the virus, because of price gouging. There was some moron who had bought 17,000 bottles of hand sanitizer who tried to sell them on ebay, to of course inflated prices and ebay banned them, so the moron is stuck with his 17,000 bottles.
3) I love Indian food, though I don't eat it all that often. I am well stocked up on TP though, so no worries here.
You can see the text of one county's health order here.
Essential businesses also include hardware stores, office supply stores, UPS Stores, auto repair, and many others.
In a nutshell, basically they are telling people not to going out for leisure or recreational activities. Golfing? Against these regulations. Riding your bike for fun or exercise? Not permitted. Riding your bike to the grocery store for a dozen eggs? Permissible.
It's amazing that in past years, all the flu-related deaths we had, and nothing changed in our day-to-day lives except taking precautions and washing your hands.
Yet now, the numbers are much lower with COVID-19 and look what we're doing. I'm trying to make sense of it.
Saving these lives is worth you not being able to go the movies. Or me going to the gym. It’s a temporary inconvenience.
Italy is currently experiencing an 8 percent rate, which shows what happens when there is limited ICU beds and ventilators, which is wy "flatten the curve" is necessary.
Microsoft has released a great COVID-19 tracking page.
https://www.bing.com/covid
Stay safe.
FYI: Amazon delivery’s are taking a really really long time to deliver. One part of my March 6th order still hasn’t arrived yet, so plan ahead. They’re also out of stock of many things...
When you look at the USA, there's only one small dot on it somewhere in the midwest. And I checked other countries too, and the dots are either missing or not accurate at all.
When I click on USA, this is what I see:
Regarding Amazon, yeah, they're getting hammered now and I saw on the news that they're looking to hire thousands of extra delivery people, and yes, certain items are simply out of stock.
There are several reasons this virus is far worse than the flu and is bringing entire countries to a complete collapse -
1. The hospitalization rate for COVID19 is 10-15% with roughly 5% requiring ICU; seasonal flu is 0.05%. Furthermore, the death rate for the flu is 0.1%, COVID19 is over thirty times worse at 3.4%. And in some places, like Italy, DOUBLE that.
2. Seasonal flu related deaths are usually not from the flu itself but other secondary causes such as secondary bacterial pneumonia. COVID19 on the other hand is also called SARS-CoV-2 which stands for severe acute respiratory syndrome where the lungs start filling up with fluid from inflammation - it is far more dangerous and far more difficult to treat.
3. We have a vaccine for the flu which reduces the severity of its spread and impact every year. We have no vaccine for COVID19.
4. The basic reproduction number of the flu (average number of people who get it from one sick person) is 1.3. This virus is 3 with some fluctuation meaning that it is much more contagious.
5. Seasonal flu is an epidemic, coronavirus is a pandemic - it rapidly spreads around the whole world, causing a devastating impact.
6. We have studied flu for decades so we know much more about it and how to treat and mitigate it compared to COVID19.
You're welcome.