The Wall Street Journal - 19.03.2020

A4| Thursday, March 19, 2020 PWLC101112HTGKRFAM123456789OIXX ***** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

Workers in Orlando, Fla., deep-cleaned an elementary school on Wednesday. The U.S. has coronavirus cases in all 50 states.

JOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINEL/ASSOCIATED PRESS

106

U.S. recoveries

84,

World-wide recoveries

Coronavirus Daily Update

As of 10:53 p.m. EDT Wednesday

9,

U.S. cases

218,

World-wide cases

150

U.S. deaths

8,

World-wide deaths

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering

shopping.

Traci Calderon, owner of

Atrium Kitchen in the market,

which hosts cooking classes and

other events, said she started

getting cancellations two weeks

ago. Now, all of her bookings are

canceled through July.

“Some people were talking

about losing 70% of their busi-

ness,” Ms. Calderon said, tear-

ing up. “I lost 100%.”

Seattle’s experience also

demonstrates the difficulty of

getting residents to stay inside

without the kinds of draconian

measures China has used. Ideas

of “essential” tasks vary widely.

Ian Sowle has been working

from home for two weeks, but

he took a trip downtown on

Monday: “I’m going to get my

hair cut,” he said, “before they

close for two months.”

Near the University of

Washington, public parks on

Monday were full of people

jogging and children having

soccer practice.

Julie Ramone and Nick Vuk-

mer have both been working

from their one-bedroom apart-

ment for the past week. Their

neighborhood is actually bus-

ier than ever during the day,

with residents working from

home looking to get out of the

house for occasional breaks.

“Last week we went to a

coffee shop and it was

packed,” Ms. Ramone, 30, said.

Katie Enarson and her hus-

band are also both working

from home, along with their 4-

and 6-year-old sons, whose

schools have closed.

Ms. Enarson said they ha-

ven’t gone to a social gather-

ing in more than a week and

are ordering their groceries

for pickup at the store, though

finding a pickup window is

getting difficult as fewer peo-

ple want to shop in-store.

sive increase in layoffs,” said

David Kelly, chief global strate-

gist atJPMorgan Chase&Co.’s

asset-management arm.

Unite Here, a labor union

that represents more than

300,000 people working in ho-

tels, gambling, food service,

manufacturing, textiles, laun-

dry, transportation and air-

ports in the U.S. and Canada,

said Wednesday it expects

80% to 90% of those workers

to be laid off.

People who have lost jobs

are filing for unemployment

benefits, resulting in a surge of

claims in some states. Kentucky

typically handles 2,000 cases a

week, but received 9,000 claims

on Tuesday. State websites that

handle benefits in New York

and Oregon have malfunctioned

due to higher traffic.

Shrinking schedules are hap-

pening as about 40% of Ameri-

cans said they would have diffi-

culty covering $400 in an

emergency, needing to borrow

the money from family or

friends or put it on a credit

card, according to a Federal Re-

serve Bank survey in 2018.

That means cutting shifts in-

stead of a full layoff can still feel

like a job loss for workers, said

Daniel Schneider, an assistant

professor of sociology at Uni-

versity of California, Berkeley.

The Economic Policy Insti-

tute on Tuesday forecast three

million job losses in the U.S. by

the summer.

Bruce Brown, who owns a

catering company in Phoenix,

said he plans to cut hours for

his seven full-time employees

following event cancellations.

He said he also noticed an up-

tick in calls from the 35 or so

part-time employees for the

company, who are scrambling

to find work.

“It’s kind of a demoralizing

thing, and I’m worried about all

of my friends who are also bar-

tenders and cooks,” said Jesse

Gustafson, who was laid off

from a $14-an-hour line cook

job at a bar in Portland, Ore.

Many shift workers who

have their hours reduced will

be eligible for unemployment

benefits, said Michele Ever-

more, a policy analyst at the

National Employment Law

Project. Every state offers par-

tial unemployment benefits,

which means people get some

compensation for hours they

normally work that get cut by

their employers. But the bene-

fits vary from state to state,

and most workers should ex-

pect to receive less than half

of their lost pay, she said.

Layoffs are expected to hit

the energy production sector

as West Texas oil futures hit

their lowest levels Wednesday

since February 2002.Whiting

PetroleumCorp. said it ex-

pects to cut one completion

crew within the next month as

it lowers planned capital

spending for the year.

Some companies are hiring,

including supermarket chains

trying to meet demand.Ama-

zon.comInc. plans to hire an

additional 100,000 employees

in the U.S. as e-commerce or-

ders surge.

For many businesses and

employees the future is murky.

When Jenny Johnson re-

ceived word about a week ago

that her hours at a Seattle

staffing firm were cut in half,

she focused on the positive—

more time to spend with her 17-

month-old son and fiancé.

Then her husband-to-be, a

prep cook and dishwasher, saw

all his shifts evaporate. Her

hours were further curbed late

last week, leaving Ms. Johnson

to worry about affording food

and paying her electricity bill.

“I’m just feeling really terri-

fied,” the 25-year-old said.

Tuesday she was laid off.

—Dave Sebastian

contributed to this article.

Square Cafe and other restau-

rants—said last week it would

temporarily close its locations

and on Wednesday laid off

about 2,000 employees, or 80%

of its workforce, as revenue

dried up.

“The goal is to rehire as

many of those people as soon

as possible, when health and

business conditions permit,”

Union Square said.

Molly Moon’s, an eight-store

ice-cream chain in Seattle, usu-

ally boosts its staff from 120

workers to 230 as summer

draws near. Instead, last week

it was weighing cutting em-

ployees’ hours back nearly 20%.

Then Monday, chief executive

Molly Moon Neitzel said she

had to lay off 95 people after

Washington’s governor closed

restaurants across the state.

She is transitioning to “contact-

less takeout” and delivery.

“You’re going to see a mas-

ContinuedfromPageOne

Workers

Are Facing

Layoffs

ing to the country’s public

health department.

The U.S. on Wednesday had

9,345 confirmed cases in all 50

states and Washington, D.C., in-

cluding 150 deaths. Case num-

bers are expected to grow as

testing capabilities expand.

The government also moved

to further tighten travel restric-

tions, with Mr. Trump announc-

ing plans to close the U.S.

northern border with Canada to

nonessential traffic.

Canadian Prime Minister

Justin Trudeau said Wednesday

his government is working with

the U.S. so the restrictions can

come into effect “very quickly.”

Trade and commerce will con-

tinue between the countries.

Mr. Trump said he is plan-

ning new restrictions on the

southern border.

Immigration and Customs

Enforcement said it would limit

arrests of people in the country

without legal authorization to

those who pose a public safety

risk or have been convicted of

serious crimes until the public

health crisis abates. Immigra-

tion authorities also said they

wouldn’t conduct operations

near health-care facilities except

in extraordinary circumstances,

so people wouldn’t be afraid to

get necessary treatment.

The change effectively re-

turns ICE to Obama-era policies

that the Trump administration

had abandoned in an effort to

more aggressively deter illegal

immigration.

The president said the U.S. is

preparing two hospital ships in

case they are needed to respond

to the novel coronavirus.

The U.S. escalated its re-
sponse to the coronavirus pan-
demic as growing shutdowns in-
creased fears of economic
fallout, pushing the stock market
to levels not seen since 2017.

The Dow Jones Industrial
Average fell below 20,
Wednesday—a demonstrable
turn amid market turmoil as
companies and investors pre-
pared for a lengthy economic
stall. President Trump said
Wednesday the White House
would be invoking the Defense
Production Act, “just in case we
need it.” That act, first passed
during the Korean War, gives
the president powers to require
and incentivize businesses to
produce goods tied to national
defense.
Hospitals are facing a short-
age of masks, gowns and other
equipment. The Air Force flew
about 500,000 test kits from It-
aly to Memphis this week, said
Gen. David Goldfein, chief of
staff for the Air Force. Vice
President Mike Pence called on
Americans to postpone elective
surgeries, and the administra-
tion said it would release
guidelines discouraging nones-
sential procedures.
Meanwhile, the Senate
passed the House’s coronavirus

ByJennifer Calfas,

Catherine Lucey

andLucy Craymer

relief bill, which will provide

free testing and require smaller

employers to give two weeks of

paid sick leave.

The White House had consid-

ered issuing an executive order

that would expand the use of in-

vestigational drugs against the

virus, The Wall Street Journal

reported, but scientists with the

Food and Drug Administration

warned it could pose unneeded

risks to patients.

Speaking to reporters, Mr.

Trump compared the effort

against the virus to fighting a

war. “I view it in a sense, a

wartime president,” he said.

“That’s what we’re fighting. It’s

a very tough situation.”

There are now more than

218,600 confirmed cases glob-

ally of the disease known as

Covid-19, with infections out-

side of mainland China—where

the epidemic began—now

above 137,494, according to

data compiled by Johns Hop-

kins University on Wednesday.

Fatalities have more than

doubled during the past two

weeks to 8,809. The number of

deaths in Europe overtook

those in China for the first

time, cementing the conti-

nent’s position as the new epi-

center of the pandemic. Italy,

the second worst-hit country

after China, has seen infec-

tions hit 35,713 and deaths

jump by more than 400 in a

day to a total of 2,978, accord-

U.S. Looks to

New Tools to

Fight Fallout

in the coming weeks.

White-collar workers here,

including in the city’s burgeon-

ing tech industry, have been

working at home for up to two

weeks. Hotel occupancy rates

are below 10%. Many restau-

rants, starved of customers and

worried about spreading the vi-

rus, voluntarily closed even be-

fore the governor’s order limit-

ing them to takeout and

delivery took effect on Monday.

Washington now has more

than 900 confirmed cases of

Covid-19, the disease caused

by the coronavirus. More than

40 people have died.

By this week, Seattle’s

downtown office buildings

were effectively empty, save

for security guards and the

odd cleaning crew. Starbucks

removed all tables and chairs

to stop people from loitering

inside the stores.

Pioneer Square, normally a

hub of commerce downtown,

was empty except for home-

less people.

Concerned about theft,

closed stores around the city

put signs on their doors say-

ing they had removed all cash

from the register.

With almost four million

people, the Seattle metro area

is home to the country’s 11th-

largest economy and, before

the outbreak, it was expanding

fast, thanks to a booming tech

industry. The region’s gross

domestic product grew to

$356 billion in 2018, up 6.9%

from the year before—more

than twice the growth rate of

the country’s overall economy.

Since 2010, more than

300,000 jobs have been added

in downtown Seattle, an in-

crease of more than 50%. Now,

many businesses are at risk

because of the outbreak. Pub-

lic officials, even as they en-

courage residents to stay

home, are asking them to keep

getting takeout and delivery

from local restaurants to help

keep them afloat.

At Pike Place Market, along

the city’s famous waterfront,

tourists were staying away,

and produce and fish vendors

said delivery orders were re-

placing the usual in-person

SEATTLE—The buses on Me-
lissa Paulen’s commute to work
at the University of Washington
Medical Center have been
nearly empty for almost a
week. The halls of the hospital
are almost empty as well, as
visitors have been tightly re-
stricted, and nonessential staff
are working from home.
“It’s a ghost town,” Ms.
Paulen, a 37-year-old gynecol-
ogist, said of the city. “It feels
kind of eerie.”
Before public officials
across the country began or-
dering or strongly advising
the closing of bars, restau-
rants and other businesses
this week, Seattle—the first
major city hit by an outbreak
of the new coronavirus—had
already begun to shut down,
offering a glimpse of what the
rest of the U.S. might expect

BYIANLOVETT

In Seattle, an Early Hot Spot,

Homebound Life Takes a Toll

The normally bustling Pike Place Market in Seattle was nearly deserted on Wednesday.

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