�鶹Ů��

The streets are eerily quiet. Barely a soul walks by. But when Rabbi Shmuel Plafker arrives at the cemetery, it’s buzzing: Vans pulling in with bodies aboard, mounds of dirt piling up as graves are dug open, a line of white signs pressed into the ground marking plots that are newly occupied. Some of the few signs of life in this anguished city are coming from those tending to the dead. As the world retreats and the pandemic’s confirmed death toll in New York City alone charges past 10,000, funeral directors, cemetery workers and others who oversee a body’s final chapter are sprinting to keep up. (Goldman and Sedensky, 4/21)

Doctors and mathematicians at Massachusetts General Hospital, part of a little-known modeling team, are now optimistic that the number of coronavirus patients has plateaued at their institution, as well as in their larger hospital network, and will not overwhelm clinicians. The Mass. General predictions come at a time when the state is considered a national hotspot for COVID-19 and when data show 100 to 150 Massachusetts residents dying daily from the virus. But analysts at the hospital believe that the crush of very sick patients at its doors is unlikely to get worse — and could start to ease in a week. (Kowalczyk, 4/20)

Days before the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo kicked off, area politicians celebrated this great piece of Americana — dubbed the world’s largest livestock show — which was going forward in the age of the coronavirus. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, a 29-year-old rising political star, posted on Facebook on Feb. 28 how “pumped” she was for rodeo season, sharing a list of her favorite songs. “Look forward to seeing y’all there! #RodeoHouston.” (Trevizo, 4/20)

Mayor London Breed ran into a friend a few weeks ago at the grocery store. As she recounted on an online forum, he rushed to hug her.“Noooo!” she shrieked, moving back. He told her he had never been sick in his life. She countered that he could be an asymptomatic carrier of the coronavirus. “The thing that is making me lose it is people who are not staying away from each other outside,” she said, laughing. “I feel like this is payback for all the problems I gave my grandmother.” (Dolan, 4/20)

Evictions are officially on hold in Massachusetts. Governor Charlie Baker signed a bill Monday blocking all eviction and foreclosure proceedings in the state for the duration of the coronavirus crisis. The measure, which won final passage in the Legislature on Friday, would prohibit landlords from filing eviction cases, unless the health or safety of other tenants is at risk, for the next four months or until 45 days after the coronavirus state of emergency is lifted. (Logan, 4/20)

Massachusetts has revised its guidelines for who should get lifesaving medical care if hospitals become overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients, a shift that comes in response to widespread concern that the state’s initial plan would allow more people from disadvantaged groups to die. The guidelines, which are not mandatory, are intended to help shape the decisions hospitals would make if they do not have enough life-saving equipment, such as ventilators, to serve every patient in need. (Rosen, 4/20)

Massachusetts is revising the previously released guidelines hospital staff would use to decide who would get a ventilator and who would not during a potential surge of COVID-19 patients. The changes are in response to an uproar from many in the disability and minority communities who worried they would be penalized for ailments that are the result of health disparities or issues that don’t affect their chances of long-term survival. (Bebinger, 4/20)

Two weeks after pulling its members off job sites across Massachusetts over coronavirus safety concerns, the state’s biggest construction union said they may return to work. The North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, which represents about 10,000 workers in Massachusetts, told members over the weekend that it’s okay to return to work if they feel it is safe. (Logan, 4/20)

Many businesses have had to change course on the fly during the novel coronavirus lockdown, such as restaurants becoming mini-markets and grocery stores limiting customer purchases. But perhaps few have made the rapid pivot of Carmel resident Shadi Khoury, who switched his business from non-essential to essential almost overnight. Khoury owns 11 Indy E Cigs vaping stores but was forced to close when Gov. Eric Holcomb declared a state of emergency and limited businesses that could remain open. Rather than watch sales dry up, Khoury got an idea. Why not use his small plant where e-cig liquid is bottled to produce a fluid that was much needed instead of recreational? Hand sanitizer. (Tuohy, 4/21)

Ohio school buildings will remain closed for the rest of the school year amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.Gov. Mike DeWine announced the decision to continue remote learning during his Monday news conference. All kindergarten through 12th grade schools have been closed since March 17. DeWine said the decision was based on two factors: continuity of learning and health risk to students, teachers and community. (Borchardt and Weiser, 4/20)

Slidell Mayor Greg Cromer and Police Chief Randy Fandal agreed Monday it was time to rescind the nightly curfew that has been in place since April 3. City leaders said the curfew, which was in effect from 11 p.m. until 5 a.m. daily, was enacted as a way to minimize unnecessary interaction between law enforcement officers and the public as the spread of the novel coronavirus ramped up in St. Tammany Parish earlier this month, especially in the Slidell area. (Canulette, 4/20)

California Assembly members on both sides of the aisle say they want to be more involved in helping the state through the COVID-19 pandemic. At a budget oversight subcommittee hearing at the state Capitol on Monday, lawmakers applauded the job Gov. Gavin Newsom is doing responding to the coronavirus outbreak in California. But Republicans and Democrats both questioned how Newsom is spending some of the money they authorized for the COVID-19 crisis. (Orr and Shafer, 4/20)

Between closed schools, social isolation, food scarcity and parental unemployment, the coronavirus pandemic has so destabilized kids' support systems that the result, counselors say, is genuinely traumatic. Sarah Kirk, an elementary school counselor in Tulsa, Okla., is especially worried about her students who were already at-risk, whose families "really struggle day to day in their homes with how they're going to pay the next bill and how they're going to get food on the table. Being home for this extended period of time is definitely a trauma for them." (Turner, 4/21)

San Francisco officials unveiled a new map Monday that plots the city’s confirmed COVID-19 cases based on the ZIP codes where patients live. The map presents a notable, if limited, illustration of the disease’s hot spots in San Francisco. Those spots broadly overlap with neighborhoods that have long endured the brunt of health care disparities and income inequality in the city. (Fracassa, 4/20)

Cannabis companies may be deemed essential business in California during the coronavirus emergency, but when it comes to support, some in the industry say the state and federal governments have left the them high and dry. The industry is “on the brink of collapsing,” said Jackie McGowan, a consultant who represents the cannabis companies. (Sheeler, 4/20)

The defunct Sleep Train Arena has long been a ghost town: wide cracks in the parking lots sprout weeds and grayish water stains mar the facade. Even its name is obsolete, as that company has changed its name.But these days, there’s a buzz of activity inside the Sacramento Kings’ old stomping grounds. (Moleski, 4/20)

Kaiser Health News: The Inside Story Of How The Bay Area Got Ahead Of The COVID-19 Crisis
Sunday was supposed to be a rare day off for Dr. Tomás Aragón after weeks of working around-the-clock. Instead, the San Francisco public health officer was jolted awake by an urgent 7:39 a.m. text message from his boss. “Can you set up a call with San Mateo and Santa Clara health officers this a.m., so we can discuss us all getting on the same page this week with aggressive actions, thanks,” said the message from Dr. Grant Colfax, director of San Francisco’s Department of Public Health. (Hart and Barry-Jester, 4/21)