More coverage

A major move: one in five americans has been told to stay home. A

testing: some countries’ sluggish responses shaped the pandemic. A

late April: closures of d.c. schools and restaurants are extended. B

nature: as humans close their doors, blossoms open their petals. c

Source: Johns Hopkins University and Washington Post reporting

Data as of 8 p.m. Friday

0

Jan. 22 March 20 Jan. 22 March 20

2K

6K

10K

0

100

200

11,299 deaths 231 deaths

World U.S.

Feb. 29

First death

in the U.S.

Since Tuesday,

the number of

deaths has doubled

in the U.S.

Since Saturday,

the number of

people who have died

from the coronavirus

has doubled worldwide

laura Hynd for tHe WasHIngton Post

CONTENT © 2020

The Washington Post / Year 143, No. 107

BUSIneSS newS ............................................. A

comIcS ............................................................. c

oPInIon PAgeS...............................................A

lotterIeS.........................................................B

oBItUArIeS.......................................................B

teleVISIon ....................................................... c

world newS..................................................A

∠∠ Left, right and the NCAA

The drive to allow college

athletes to profit from their

work has supporters on both

sides of the political spectrum

— and it’s gaining

momentum. Magazine

As the world idles Travel

pros reflect on being

grounded. Plans were

canceled, but more will be

made. Travel

∠∠ Sinéad these d ays The

former pop star has

struggled, personally and

professionally, ever since she

ripped up a photo of the pope

on “Saturday Night Live” in

1992. Now, she just wants to
      make music. Arts & Style

In Sunday’s post

$ 234

James claPHam for tHe W asHIngton Post

Inside

editor’s note

beginning with today’s edition,

monday-through-saturday sports

coverage will run behind the style

section. We currently anticipate

publishing a separate sports

section on sundays, and we will

return to having a separate sports

section every day when events

resume. today’s sports section

starts on c8.

ABCDE

Prices may vary in areas outside metropolitan Washington. su V1 V2 V3 V

Mostly sunny, cooler 55/37 • Tomorrow: Partly sunny 54/42 B6 Democracy Dies in Darkness SATURDAy, MARCH 21 , 2020. $

More ordered home as economy reels

saul loeb/agence france-Presse/getty Images

Union Station in Washington is nearly empty Friday. In a 24-hour period, residents in California, New York and Illinois were told to stay

home, a nd Pennsylvania ordered nonessential businesses to close as markets continued their retreat and economic pains continued to mount.

BY DAVID J. LYNCH

AND HEATHER LONG

The U.s. economy is deteriorat-

ing more quickly than was ex-

pected just days ago as extraordi-

nary measures designed to curb

the coronavirus keep 84 million

Americans penned in their

homes and cause the near-total

shutdown of most businesses.

In a single 24-hour period, the

governors of three of the largest

states — C alifornia, new York and

Illinois — ordered residents to

stay home except to buy food and

medicine, while the governor of

Pennsylvania ordered the closure

of nonessential businesses.

Across the globe, health officials

are struggling to cope with the

growing number of patients, with

the World Health organization

noting that while it required

three months to reach 100,

cases, it took only 12 days to hit

another 100,000.

The resulting economic melt-

down, which is sending several

million workers streaming into

the unemployment line, is out-

pacing the federal government’s

efforts to respond. As the senate

on Friday raced to complete work

on a financial rescue package, the

White House and key lawmakers

were dramatically expanding its

scope, pushing the legislation far

beyond the original $1 trillion

price tag.

With each day, an unprece-

dented stoppage gathers force as

restaurants, movie theaters,

sports arenas and offices close to

shield themselves from the dis-

ease. Already, it is clear that the

initial economic decline will be

sharper and more painful than

see ecOnOmy on a

FALLOUT HITS WITH

SHOCKING SPEED

Millions are filing

unemployment claims

BY SHANE HARRIS,

GREG MILLER,

JOSH DAWSEY

AND ELLEN NAKASHIMA

U.s. intelligence agencies were
issuing ominous, classified warn-
ings in January and February
about the global danger posed by
the coronavirus while President
Trump and lawmakers played
down the threat and failed to take
action that might have slowed the
spread of the pathogen, accord-
ing to U.s. officials familiar with
spy agency reporting.
The intelligence reports didn’t
predict when the virus might land
on U.s. shores or recommend
particular steps that public
health officials should take, is-
sues outside the purview of the
intelligence agencies. But they
did track the spread of the virus in
China, and later in other coun-
tries, and warned that Chinese
officials appeared to be minimiz-
ing the severity of the outbreak.
Ta ken together, the reports and
warnings painted an early picture
of a virus that showed the charac-
teristics of a globe-encircling pan-
demic that could require govern-
ments to take swift actions to
contain it. But despite that con-
stant flow of reporting, Trump
continued publicly and privately
to play down the threat the virus
posed to Americans. Lawmakers,
too, did not grapple with the virus
in earnest until this month, as
officials scrambled to keep citi-
zens in their homes and hospitals
braced for a surge in patients
suffering from covid-19, the dis-
ease caused by the coronavirus.
Intelligence agencies “have
been warning on this since Janu-
ary,” said a U.s. official who had
see InTeLLIgence on a

Intelligence officials’

early alarms about

possible pandemic

went unheeded

BY STEVE HENDRIX

AND LOUISA LOVELUCK

jerusalem — Like many things,
social distancing is a luxury un-
available to the residents of al-
shati, a refugee camp in the
northern Gaza strip. Almost
86,000 Palestinians, living some-
times 12 to an apartment, are
packed within a quarter-square-
mile of density and despair ready
made for a coronavirus explosion.
“If the virus reaches us, many
people will die,” said Mahmoud
shakshak, 65, an unemployed al-
shati resident. “not just because
of the v irus, but because the world
will close to us and they will let us
die alone.”
For residents and health offi-
cials alike, the prospect of a
c ovid-19 outbreak within one of
the dozens of refugee camps, mi-
grant centers and displacement
sites spread across the Middle
east is a nightmare within a
nightmare. Agencies are bracing
for the rapid spread of the disease
through tightly packed camps
where f eeble health systems, poor
sanitation, warfare and political
restraints could make it nearly
impossible to contain.
In Yemen, nearly 3.6 million
people are displaced from their
homes, the vast majority living in
makeshift camps with meager fa-
cilities or in overcrowded neigh-
see refugees on a

Middle East’s most

vulnerable face a

growing nightmare

BY BETH REINHARD,

ROSALIND S. HELDERMAN,

FAIZ SIDDIQUI

AND MARK BERMAN

It w as one of the first outbreaks

of the coronavirus to capture

global attention: For weeks in

February, the cruise ship Dia-

mond Princess was moored off

the shore of Japan with hundreds

of infected people aboard.

Then in early March, nearly

2,000 passengers had to be quar-

antined on U.s. military bases

after infected passengers were

found on the Grand Princess, a

sister ship operated by Carnival

Corp.-owned Princess Cruises.

By the time major cruise lines

halted new voyages last Friday, at

least half a dozen other ships had

sailed with at least one passenger

later diagnosed with the highly

contagious virus.

While cruise lines have seen

only a small fraction of the pan-

demic, they have emerged as a

particularly tricky battleground

to fight the virus. Health experts

said the industry’s initial resis-

tance to take drastic action —

coupled with a deference from

government officials, who let the

companies come up with their

own action plan — put more pas-

sengers at risk.

“The cruise ship response was

definitely lagging behind expert

see cruIses on a

Experts: Industry’s

resistance put cruise

passengers at risk

row he was absent. And it was

making people nervous.

Had he been sidelined? Was he

(extremely hard swallow)... sick?

Turns out Fauci was back at t he

office, pushing ahead with work

on a potential vaccine, having

briefed the president before the

presser.

But the worry was telling.

As recently as a few weeks ago,

it might have seemed as if the

gravest threat facing the country

was the fact that reality had split

along partisan lines, creating un-

resolvable disagreements about

what was happening in America

and why.

now a public-health catastro-

phe has remade our reality and

pushed Fauci into the spotlight as

a figure that might have seemed

see faucI on a

BY ELLEN MCCARTHY

AND BEN TERRIS

Thursday’s White House news

conference began and, within

minutes, so did the cries of alarm

on Twitter:

“Where is Dr. Fauci?”

“What happened to Dr. Fauci?

“Dr. Fauci, paging Dr. Fauci.

Where the heck is Dr. Fauci?????”

seventy-nine-year-old Antho-

ny s. Fauci has become the grand-

fatherly captain of the corona -

virus crisis. Through unrelenting

appearances both in the media

and onstage with the president

and his lieutenants, the longtime

head of the national Institute of

Allergy and Infectious Diseases

has been a reliable constant in a

time of uncertainty.

But now, for the second day in a

Reliable Fauci has everyone’s ear — even Trump’s

JabIn botsford/tHe WasHIngton Post

anthony s. f auci, right, with President Trump and Deborah Birx,

White House coronavirus response coordinator, at a briefing.

BY PAUL SCHWARTZMAN,

JOE HEIM

AND STEVE THOMPSON

Greg Jefferson, a lobbyist w ith a

scholar’s knowledge of Washing-

ton nightspots, is accustomed to

spending three or four evenings a

week on the town, a cigar in one

hand, a Tito’s on the rocks in the

other.

now stuck at home in a largely

shuttered city, Jefferson, 5 0, found

himself t he o ther d ay t aking unex-

pected pleasure in an otherwise

forgettable chore: driving his

white GMC to Mr. Wash express

on Georgia Avenue.

“That was my outing for the

day,” he said after returning to a

home now occupied around the

clock by his wife, three children

and father-in-law. “The windows

were down and the sun roof was

open. n ice to get some fresh a ir.”

Day by day, as officials across

the Washington region impose

new restrictions to contain the

coronavirus, the routines and

rhythms of conventional life are

melting away. Bedrooms are now

offices. Dining rooms are class-

rooms. sidewalks have become

obstacle c ourses, a s pedestrians —

many behind masks a nd in rubber

gloves — navigate new rules for

how close is t oo close.

“I’ll just say hello from here,” a

man was overheard saying to a

friend standing a few feet away

outside a Whole Foods o n H street

ne.

For most people, the new nor-

mal is unfolding at home, which

has become a blend of sanctuary

and pressure cooker, with work

calls interrupted by diaper chang-

es, sounds from one room bleed-

ing into another, and everyone

savoring the chance to step out-

side even as officials warn to stay

see regIOn on a

Shut in and going stir-crazy,

region tries to find its rhythm