Re:Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to...
by Laforet on Tuesday March 10, 2020 @01:08AM
(#22532900)
Hospitals in China have been cancelling all elective surgeries and sending the majority of their in-patient home. This was done partly due to the fears of the virus but also because a large part of irregular staff (nurse assistants contractors, medical students and registrars) were away and unable to work. Bear in mind the outbreak happened in late winter when most hospitals would run at near capacity anyway and there is no way to avoid the loss of life.
I agree that we have not fully realised the effect of the lockdown yet, but from what I have gathered things are not very promising. It's unlikely that people will ever go without food or shelter, however the economic progress they worked hard to achieve in the past decade could very easily be undone.
Re:Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to...
by Gibbon1 on Monday March 09, 2020 @10:15PM
(#22532153)
I think how devastating it is depends on whether the government will just step in to make things whole or not. Seriously the government could just tell payroll companies to cut checks as normal and put it on the treasuries dime. They could just declare debt holidays.
Probably means people and businesses in places like China will be mostly 'fine' and people in the US are going to get savaged.
What has changed is that almost everything is being delivered from online store or purchased from supermarket or pharmacy during restricted hours. Anybody who worked a pink collar job before has no job now. Anybody who owned a brick and mortar business before is hoping that the government grants will cover the rent and allow it to reopen if/when things finally go back to normal.
Lockdown like this is no doubt devastating to the economy. I don't think we've seen the worst of it yet. But so far it hasn't affected supply of food, clothing, shelter.