Mass gatherings now banned in Santa Clara, WWDC under threat of cancellation
A new order has been issued by the County of Santa Clara Public Health Department explicitly banning mass gatherings for at least three weeks, as the county gathers more information about COVID-19 casting further doubt on a timely WWDC.
Apple's WWDC 2019 drew thousands of developers from around the world.
An order issuing "new, stronger guidance" about coronavirus bans any gathering of 1,000 or more people, effective March 9, for at least three weeks. The ban comes just a few hours after the county experienced its first death from the virus, and 43 confirmed cases in the area.
"This is a critical moment in the growing outbreak of COVID-19 in Santa Clara County. The strong measures we are taking today are designed to slow the spread of disease," said Dr. Sara Cody, Santa Clara County Health Officer. "Today's order and new recommendations will reduce the number of people who develop severe illness and will help prevent our healthcare system from becoming overwhelmed. This is critically important for anyone with healthcare needs, not just those most vulnerable to serious illness from COVID-19."
WWDC is typically scheduled for the beginning of June. While technically not banned yet, a three-week delay is not a promising sign for the live event to happen on-schedule.
A number of major international events have been canceled due to concerns surrounding the spread of COVID-19. Facebook in February nixed live portions of its annual F8 conference, GSMA canceled the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, and Informa called off the 2020 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. On Monday, Google and Adobe canceled in-person segments of Google Cloud Next 2020 and the Adobe Summit, while Google a day later scrubbed the live portion of Google I/O.
Apple is also taking steps to curb potential COVID-19 fallout and this week restricted employee travel to Italy and South Korea. The company also withdrew from SXSW 2020, where it planned to premiere three Apple TV+ originals.
Apple's WWDC 2019 drew thousands of developers from around the world.
An order issuing "new, stronger guidance" about coronavirus bans any gathering of 1,000 or more people, effective March 9, for at least three weeks. The ban comes just a few hours after the county experienced its first death from the virus, and 43 confirmed cases in the area.
"This is a critical moment in the growing outbreak of COVID-19 in Santa Clara County. The strong measures we are taking today are designed to slow the spread of disease," said Dr. Sara Cody, Santa Clara County Health Officer. "Today's order and new recommendations will reduce the number of people who develop severe illness and will help prevent our healthcare system from becoming overwhelmed. This is critically important for anyone with healthcare needs, not just those most vulnerable to serious illness from COVID-19."
WWDC is typically scheduled for the beginning of June. While technically not banned yet, a three-week delay is not a promising sign for the live event to happen on-schedule.
The move comes after suggestions from the county that large gathering be cancelled. The previous guidance was issued on March 5, when there were 20 confirmed cases in the region. The county includes residents and employers living and working in the county's cities, including Cupertino, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Jose and Sunnyvale.Update: Six new cases of #COVID19 in Santa Clara County. This brings the total number of cases to 43. We are at a critical moment in the growing outbreak of COVID-19 in the county. We are issuing a new directive: https://t.co/h8eL6QNW93 pic.twitter.com/ohz6d8Tvgq
— Healthy SCC (@HealthySCC)
A number of major international events have been canceled due to concerns surrounding the spread of COVID-19. Facebook in February nixed live portions of its annual F8 conference, GSMA canceled the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, and Informa called off the 2020 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. On Monday, Google and Adobe canceled in-person segments of Google Cloud Next 2020 and the Adobe Summit, while Google a day later scrubbed the live portion of Google I/O.
Apple is also taking steps to curb potential COVID-19 fallout and this week restricted employee travel to Italy and South Korea. The company also withdrew from SXSW 2020, where it planned to premiere three Apple TV+ originals.
Comments
In a preemptive response to those who say this is no big deal — the thing is, even if we get lucky and it is seasonal and only 10% of people who actually get it need to be hospitalized, that’s still 10% of a very large number.
You should be prepared at home just in case. Food and Water. It doesn't taker much of a disruption is shipping of products to have empty shelf's in the supermarkets. Places are already short on some products. From Toilet Paper, which I don't use much of at Home as I have a bidet for my toilet. Sanitary wipes are pretty much gone from shelf's where I've looked. At some point, you'll see empty food shelf's and people now start fighting over things. The CDC has said you should get prepared. Which you really should be anyway. You should have some long life food stuff at home put away some place. I have 20 gallons of water currently on the shelf. If it's not for this, it could be any number of other natural disasters. You don't want to be the one down the road fighting over scraps on the shelf's. I've just been buying a little here and there extra from my normal shopping. Stuff that will last a year, you can just eat down the road before it expires anyway.
Still, I think this whole thing is overblown.
Sounds like a good argument for further regulation.
Apparently you need a refresher on politics -- specifically how government functions and responsibilities can be controlled at the local, state and federal level for different subjects.