The Coronavirus Panic Thread

[SimonF12009]

Had a good one today, was on the door, making sure we didn'y have too many customers in, and an obviously drunk SC came in, said he wanted to buy some essential stuff, OK mate, go for it. Turns out he was trying to buy alcohol, and when the checkout person said no (as he was very obviously drunk), he started shouting the he hopes we all get coronavirus and die, yeah, fuck you too

[Smapti]

Our governor just cancelled the rest of the school year. Supposedly we're starting to flatten the curve here, but I don't think the shutdown's gonna end any time soon.

I had a long weekend and decided to venture out today because I really wanted a sandwich, which required taking the bus downtown. It's pretty eerie right now - almost everything is closed except for a handful of restaurants and mini-marts, and some of the bars and tattoo parlors have boarded up their windows.

[EricKei]

CO Clerk - Thanks!


They are doing it in MS, so perhaps that bodes well.

[crazyofficeclerk]

Ok so here is what I learned about Ohio's today after the daily Wine with DeWine at 2. Anyone who did not already receive the maximum benefit amount for March, will be issued a supplement that will equal the maximum allotment for your household size. For example if you are a household of one and received $94 dollars you will receive $100 to equal $194 which is the maximum for a household of one. This is supposed to be happening throughout the week. There is also a box of food you can pick up at your local food pantry. I don't know anything about that yet.

Again, I do occasionally hear things about other states so if I hear anything else I will let you all know.

[Android Kaeli]

My state has a "stay at home" order in effect as of today at 5, so pretty much if we're not going to work, home, getting essential supplies, or taking said supplies to those who can't, to stay home. I've been doing that for over a month now, but I guess now it's really official.

[telecom_goddess]

We have a stay at home order. I'm on leave until April 30th paid due to being high risk, and have been on leave since about the middle of March. So an unexpected vacation, but I am being responsible and not going anywhere. I tried going shopping with a mask once and I hated it, my partners are going to to have to go without me from now on, they have before and it's been fine. I can't get online delivery or pickup scheduled to save my damn life. It keeps getting cancelled. But one time I was in the store about 3 weeks ago and while TP and paper towels, rice, flour etc were out they had tons of meat. Piles and piles of meat. So much meat. It was crazy. So far I have only run into one thing that I needed that the didn't have, and that was eggs last Saturday, the day I went shopping with a mask. NO eggs to be found, I'm hoping that changes this coming weekend.

As for TP i'm doing ok, I didn't panic stock on it but I did try to stock for the next month or two. I am buying some from Ebay of all places to get a little extra in since it is still out everywhere and not available anywhere right now. Supposed to be delivered tomorrow so we'll see. Who would have thought I would have had to order TP from Ebay.

[Smapti]

Starting next week, they're canceling regular bus routes here, but they're opening up Dial-a-Ride for essential trips. So from tomorrow onward I'm gonna have to call the bus company every day to set pickups for next week.

[notalwaysright]

When I got home from work there was a note hanging on the door and I was like what now? Normally these are notices to enter (check the water heater or smoke detector, etc) but they are not doing anything like that unless it's an emergency. I was thinking, they wouldn't dare try to increase rent right now, when they have to beg people just to pay their normal bill since people are taking the no eviction rule as a "whee, no rent!" advisory.

In the end it's a request to update our information for their files. Because of "constant change among our tenants and other factors." I had to chuckle... Other factors? Is this a roundabout way to make sure they have a current emergency contact for if one of us gets the virus and dies? Yikes.

[Seanette]

We got our lease renewal notice during my quarantine (everything was handled by e-Sign). No increase this year.

[Dreamstalker]

We got an email that someone working with a contractor on the building renovations has tested positive. The specific building they were working in is vacant, but they've been using one of the courtyards and common areas in the basement And very few of them were wearing masks. That common area was or will be deep-cleaned. This means the construction is on hold for who knows how long.

[Smapti]

Today a would-be customer tried to bribe me $100 to let him into the Store five minutes before close. (We've been stopping new customers from coming in 30 minutes before closing time so we're empty by then.)

I didn't take it.

Twenty years in the service industry and that's the first time anyone's ever tried to bribe me (unless you count a drunk woman in a Jack in the Box drive-thru who offered to flash me in exchange for free tacos, which I also declined.)

[notalwaysright]

Today a would-be customer tried to bribe me $100 to let him into the Store five minutes before close.

Wow that's a pretty big bribe just to get into a store! Crazy. I waited in line to get into Winco today, first time in this whole mess. Less than 10 minutes. They had everything, even rubbing alcohol and disinfectant wipes. For some reason my town buys ramen like crazy, that aisle was even lower than previous times I shopped there. My concern is that as the cases slow, people will be like "it's over, everything is normal." Fred Meyer isn't limiting people at all. They claim they are, but nobody is at the doors counting and both giant entrances are open.

I was a bit late to do my laundry and other people had washes running... If I came back and someone was inside (you can see through a window) I waited outside, and someone did the same for me. Say what you want about the part of town I live in, not that any of you know, but we're trying.

[Mental_Mouse]

Today a would-be customer tried to bribe me $100 to let him into the Store five minutes before close. (We've been stopping new customers from coming in 30 minutes before closing time so we're empty by then.)

Tell him the store's burn rate for an hour, including overtime.

[LadyofArc]

Wow that's a pretty big bribe just to get into a store!

I'd say that's fairly low around here - the fines for failing to adhere to social distancing regulations are $1000 per person minimum.

Things are starting to ease up over here just a tiny bit.
In early April, the federal government cancelled all non-urgent elective surgeries (1). This did impact us, although not to a huge extent compared to other private hospitals (2). Very recently though, the government also agreed to put a guarantee in place so that private hospitals could remain viable, but in exchange, the private hospitals had to be willing to help out with the COVID effort. This could either mean that they take the elective surgeries from the public system and free it up for COVID patients or they treat COVID patients themselves. We'll be doing a little bit of both as we have a very small ICU.
On the positive side, this means that nobody is getting stood down, but the catch is that the departments need to be up to date with all required training, audits, performance reviews and so on. This is gonna be very interesting...

(1) - elective surgeries over here in the land Down Under are classed under three categories. Category 1 procedures need to be done in the next 30 days or there's long-term consequences for the patient (eg cancer-related procedures, neurosurgical procedures or other similar lifethreatening procedures), Category 2 procedures need to be done in the next 60 days or there's long-term consequences (death and/or disability - examples are most orthopaedic surgeries and a handful of other procedures), Category 3 are definitely non-urgent procedures (key examples are most ear/nose/throat surgeries and cosmetic surgeries). The Category 3 and most category 2 procedures are the ones being canned.

(2) - please don't turn this into a debate on healthcare systems.

[Slave to the Phone]

I had my yearly physical in the middle of February. I'm an old fart, so my Doctor scheduled me for normal tests...blood work, boob smooshing, anal probing...all that good stuff.

I started my panic less than a week after that and didn't want to go places where sick people might be. My doctor's office called me at the beginning of March to tell me that I was in the high risk population and that unless I felt I needed to be seen, tested...I should stay home. I sent them flowers.