NY Coronavirus: 3/4 Workforce Stay Home; Mortgage Payments Waived

[In_The_Wind]

Gov. Andrew Cuomo says 75 percent of the workforce must stay home and mortgage payments will be waived for 90 days.

NEW YORK, NY — Three-fourths of non-essential New York employees will be told to work from home, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo said mortgage payments will be waived for 90 days for those with financial hardships as the state ramps up measures to mitigate the health and economic impacts of the new coronavirus. Cuomo announced the latest in a series of drastic measures Thursday, adding that overdraft fees on ATMs and credit cards will also be waived.


Essential services include industries such as shipping, media, warehousing, grocery and food production, pharmacies, health care providers, utilities, banks and related financial institutions, as well as other industries critical to the supply chain.

https://patch.com/new-york/midhudsonvalley/s/h1zhp/ny-coronavirus-3-4-workforce-stay-home-mortgage-payments-waived?utm_source=alert-breakingnews&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alert

[wnylib]

1. Yesterday I went to a grocery store

and noticed on the way there that several businesses were closed. But stiil open, with people entering, were a beauty spa (open sign in the window lit and a woman entering), and a pizza parlor, where a man left with a large box of pizza in hand and entered an insurance office across the street.

At the grocery store, I was surprised to see a shelf of individual rolls of Scott toilet paper. There were 2 young guys (about late teens/early 20's) wearing masks and gloves, filling a cart up with the tp. No other items in the
cart. The manager stopped them. They insisted that they needed it, but he said, " So do other people," would not let him take more, and had them put some back. There have been reports of people buying up essentials in order to resell them at inflated prices.

Churches have cancelled all activities and weekly services, which is unfortunate because some of them run food banks, and allow people to use their facilties for fund-raising benefit dinners for medical treatments and equipment. The ones that run day care centers are keeping the centers open.

[In_The_Wind]

2. It's a good thing the store manager stopped the huge toilet paper purchase.

Well, we need daycare if we want families to go to work.

The beauty spa should be given a ticket/citation for violating the Governor's order to close down. I really just don't get it why some folks think they can proceed as if nothing is wrong.

[wnylib]

3. That store was pretty well stocked

considering the situation and that they are a busy store. I called before going because on Monday they had run out of meat and tp. They told me on the phone that they had just received a new meat shipment and a limited supply of tp. They were totally out of fresh potatoes when I got there and had one bag of cooking onions left. Plenty of bread since they have their own bakery.

They were out of isopropyl alcohol so I went to a .Dollar General store next door and found some there. Made me nervous to be there because it was crowded. Saw a woman in line with her teenage son and daughter. Woman had bought some grocery items, but the kids clearly did not need to be there. They were fingering candy and gum displays at the checkout, deciding what they wanted. The girl was eating something in line. I stared at her and she said nothing but her whole body language and facial expression were flippant as if to say "So what?" No need for them to be there. Mother should have kept them in the car.

There is a lot of that defiant, flippant attitude in my community. A store empliyee said that, from the attitudes he is seeing, he expects we will be in lock down before long.

[In_The_Wind]

4. That is scary. Perhaps they haven't watched the news.

There is no excuse for the kids being in the store. Their bad attitudes must drive Mom crazy.

I'm glad you found some of the things you needed.

The only small bread outlet in town was closed yesterday and today. I had no choice but visit a larger grocery store for bread and milk. As I went through the self checkout I noticed a list of items on restricted purchase limits. The store was more than 1/2 stocked except: canned veggies, no toilet paper, low on paper towels, Haagen-Dazs was on sale for $2.88 (mostly sold out).

[wnylib]

5. I suspect that the news they get

comes from Fox TV, Hannity, etc.

The mother saw people staring at the kids and looked embarrassed, knew she was wrong to have the kids there. Hope she knows better in the future. Those kids looked so bratty that maybe she is keepng them close to keep them from going to parties and teen groups that are hanging out together while out of school.

[In_The_Wind]

6. Someone should write a letter to the editor: Keep Your Kids Home.

There must be a local newspaper.

[wnylib]

7. Local newspaper is very conservative RW.

I usually don't read it. Prefer the Buffalo News.

But I do check the local one online occasionally. Last time I looked, on Monday, it was depressing. Main articles gave good info on covid 19 but letters to the editor were full of RW claims of fake news and complaints about political attacks on Trump, etc. A few posters gave solid, factual info on covid to counter them, but then the RW posters ganged up on them.

Buffalo is very blue, but some places in the region around it definiiely are not.