What was your COVID news for the day?

[Another Reader]

The FILING deadline has not been extended. The payment deadline has. If you can't file by April 15th, as of now, you need to file an extension.

From Bloomberg:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...april-15-tax-deadline-by-90-days-for-millions

 

[Walt34]

West Virginia, the last holdout continental state with no reported cases of COVID-19, now has one case reported. Bummer, I was hoping there was something in the water giving us all immunity. So much for that theory.

 

[Moemg]

Florida is supposed to close all bars and nightclubs at 5PM tonight . Like that is going to happen on St. Paddy's Day .

 

[gromit]

I cringe every time I hear about the government possibly sending "checks" to everyone. I hope that they will really have some direct deposit option so every older person in the US won't have to stand in line at their local bank to make a deposit.

 

[W2R]

Dr. Jennifer Avegno, leader of the [New Orleans] city health department, stressed that the virus was spreading much faster in New Orleans than in other U.S. cities.

“This is a rapidly changing situation,” she said. “There is substantial community spread.”

Because of the cluster of cases in New Orleans, at least one Baton Rouge hospital, Our Lady of the Lake, announced that no one who has visited New Orleans or neighboring Jefferson Parish in the last 14 days will be allowed to enter the facility.

https://apnews.com/a5943a0cabc98b196b2578314bc4a2fa

Oh great. I live in Jefferson Parish just over the line from New Orleans. Not that I want to visit Our Lady of the Lake, but it's a pretty major hospital in Baton Rouge. On the one hand, I understand; the situation in New Orleans is crazy. Still, reading that didn't exactly raise my confidence in the outcome for this city.

 

[gwraigty]

I cringe every time I hear about the government possibly sending "checks" to everyone. I hope that they will really have some direct deposit option so every older person in the US won't have to stand in line at their local bank to make a deposit.

ATM or mobile deposit. Young and middle-aged people aren't so fond of standing in line either. I agree that direct deposit would be ideal.

 

[CardsFan]

Local B&M bank sent an email saying all lobbies are now closed. Only ATM and drive up allowed. Ironically, I went there on Saturday to take care of a large transfer that could not be done on-line (at least not in one transaction).

St. Louis region has just closed all bars and restaurants effective Thursday night. Kind of expected it.

 

[aaronc879]

Local B&M bank sent an email saying all lobbies are now closed. Only ATM and drive up allowed. Ironically, I went there on Saturday to take care of a large transfer that could not be done on-line (at least not in one transaction).

St. Louis region has just closed all bars and restaurants effective Thursday night. Kind of expected it.

Same here. On Monday I went to my Credit Union to start the process of refinancing my mortgage. Today I find out lobby is closed effective immediately and all non-essential lobby business is postponed until further notice. I guess I won't be finishing the refinance any time soon.

 

[socca]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...april-15-tax-deadline-by-90-days-for-millions

Thanks for the link. I just doubled-down on my tax payment delay strategy by also cancelling my first 2020 estimated tax payment on eftps.gov. When the news appears on irs.gov or treasury.gov I'll devise a new tax payment strategy. I'll probably transfer the money that would have been going to the IRS from my zero-interest checking account to my Vanguard account, where I can either speculate in the stock market for a few months ( ) or collect some dividends from a muni bond fund .

I can understand that some folks (and companies) who had huge income in 2019 (= huge taxes) and are facing a financial disaster in 2020 due to COVID-19 might have a liquidity issue and thus appreciate the extra time to pay their taxes. Gotta feel sorry for these folks.

 

[aaronc879]

I cringe every time I hear about the government possibly sending "checks" to everyone. I hope that they will really have some direct deposit option so every older person in the US won't have to stand in line at their local bank to make a deposit.

Drivethru only. No standing in line(lobby closed). That's the case for all banks around here and i'm sure it will be nationwide by the time the checks come.

 

[aaronc879]

My state is now allowing people out of work due to Covid-19 to collect Unemployment with no waiting period and no job search requirement. Too bad i'm self employed and not eligible. I may not be able to get work for months but I can't get UE.

 

[gromit]

Drivethru only. No standing in line(lobby closed). That's the case for all banks around here and i'm sure it will be nationwide by the time the checks come.

That would be good. I didn't even think of the drive up window. A lot of people can also use their bank's phone app for remote deposit, but I figure a lot of elderly customers are not be familiar with that.

 

[rodi]

Locally restaurants are take out only. Grocery stores have lines. I heard that Costco's line to get in required a 6' separation for social distance.

Since my son may have had it (unconfirmed because he recovered before testing started for community spread cases) we are being extra careful about leaving the house. I still take the dog to the beach - but keep my distance from people... even my sister and friend stay more than 6 feet away from me. Good think the beach is empty at 6:30am except for the surfers.

Older son's school clarified, today, that even labs and practicals will be remote. Not sure how you do a chem lab remotely. They also announced today that remote learning will last through the rest of the semester. (Not knowing when in person would resume was keeping out of town kids at school) They have not required the dorm residents to leave (yet) but are strongly encouraging it. So sometime this week we'll go get him... he's saying he wants to stay at school - who blames him... parents are boring and we won't let him leave the house. Plus we may have a contaminated house. So we're negotiating the move out of the dorm date.

YMCA closed yesterday (me and kids). 24 hour fitness closed today (DH). We've been making do with the elliptical and free weights. Actually we've been skipping the gym since younger son got sick 2.5 weeks ago. A community planning meeting I participate was canceled for a 'video presentation'.

 

[michelek]

Have now lost all of my May Airbnb bookings. That’s graduation and Mother’s Day. It’s devastating to me and my cleaner.

 

[John Galt III]

Stayed inside all day! Until 6:30 PM, then went out for a stroll around the hood. A lot of other folks out for walks, too. Usually I am the only walker. Lots of bored, shut in people, I guess, out for walks. I am wondering if the panic buyers have all they want by now. Will venture out on a 'boredom shopping' trip tomorrow to a food store. Maybe I'll be interrogated at the entrance. Now they are talking about 'months' instead of 'weeks' of things being closed! My library will be closed for *months* ?? Bars closed for *months* ? My church closed for *months* ? Say it isn't so !

 

[Calico]

My state is now allowing people out of work due to Covid-19 to collect Unemployment with no waiting period and no job search requirement. Too bad i'm self employed and not eligible. I may not be able to get work for months but I can't get UE.

The governor of my state issued an executive order today allowing the same. With the huge hit the service industries are taking and will continue to take I have been concerned about employees in those industries. I'm glad steps are being taken to ease what will still, in all likelihood, be a devastating financial blow to them.

 

[Chuckanut]

Layoffs of various family members as business close to do government order or lack of business. Not so good.

 

[cathy63]

Thanks for the link. I just doubled-down on my tax payment delay strategy by also cancelling my first 2020 estimated tax payment on eftps.gov...

According to the article, they haven't yet extended the deadline for 2020 estimates, only for the 2019 final payments. They'll probably extend it for estimates as well, but you might want to keep an eye on the news just in case they don't.

 

[Yoheadden]

Laid off our 5 employees until further notice. First day DW & I ran the store on our own. Wasn’t a problem since unfortunately, we were down almost 50%.

 

[socca]

According to the article, they haven't yet extended the deadline for 2020 estimates, only for the 2019 final payments. They'll probably extend it for estimates as well, but you might want to keep an eye on the news just in case they don't.

Yep. I have to see the new deadline(s) from an official source (not the news ) before changing my strategy. Otherwise, I'll make either or both payments before April 15th and move on to more interesting things.

 

[Nemo2]

https://www.techtimes.com/articles/...-covid-19-heres-why-youre-more-vulnerable.htm

Coronavirus: If You're Blood-Type A, Look Out for COVID-19! Here's Why You're More Vulnerable
As first reported via South China Morning Post, a Chinese medical study recently concluded that human blood-types might affect whether a person quickly gets the COVID-19 or not. As explained, persons with blood-type A, have higher risks of obtaining the disease from a carrier while type O typically shifts the virus and less likely encounters the disease.

This conclusion was made after researchers led by Wang Xinghuan with the Centre for Evidence-Based and Translational Medicine at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University published a study on March 11, saying that blood-types of Wuhan death victims have similarities. They found that out of the 206 deaths-- 85 had type A blood, which was 63 percent more than the 52 with type O.

Wang clarified that their study is not yet been finalized as of now, but the research might lead authorities to protect more blood-type A people since they are initially proven to be more prone with COVID-19 compared to other blood-types.

DW & I are both A-

 

[statsman]

A+ here. DW is B- and DD is O+ (the O is my recessive blood type). If one of us ends up succumbing to the virus, I would prefer it be me.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

DB was a bit annoyed with me a couple of weekends ago when I wouldn’t come over to see his son and his wife from out of town. This was early to be social distancing but DW and I were early adopters. I talked to SisterIL tonight and found out everybody caught a cold from nephew’s wife. Not COVID-19 but nice to have avoided it.

I think tomorrow I better go get the propane tank filled. I’ve got grains, hops and yeast but I don’t want to be caught looking at the ingredients with no way to brew.

 

[6miths]

Looking at reports on the blood group study from China it is hard to decipher the numbers. Best I can see from the numbers provided it looks like if one is Type O then there is significant protection from acquiring the infection but if one is Type O and contracts the virus then the risk of death is higher. It will be interesting to see this study and subsequent analysis from other populations as the findings could be due to chance.

 

[Pellice]

Apologies if this duplicates someone's news - read an article in my news feed that Amazon is going to begin prioritizing crisis-necessary shipments into their warehouses. That's going to shove aside, partially I presume, other shipments. I'm casting about for what might be a necessity to me in the next month, but not to Amazon. It won't be a non-necessity for a while, not during this financial slide.