>> tonight on kqed newsroom, president trump creates a national emergency in response to the coronavirus. >> plus markets around the globe havetaken hits prompting fears of a recession. we'll hear how businesses are iring in is crisis. >> and plus the elderly population is in risk of catching ngand succumto covid-19. >> good evening, and welcome to kqed newsroom. the coronavirus has many spooked and concerned. tonight we're going to do our level best here at kqed newsroom to bring you information about how the virus is impacting the health,

economy and society in unprecedented ways. >> today president trump deonared a na emergency to access up to $50 billion in disaster relief to help combat the spread of the coronavirus. and the world health organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic. more than 130,000 people have been infected in at least 130 countries, and hospitals grapple with a short blg of masks and testing kits. they're on a surge of trying to contain new cases. on thuray, the california of department of health said gatherings of 200 people or more should be postponed or canceled until the end of march. joining me is the officer for d laura. health department welcome to you both. and what are the main takeaways

that i got from president trump's national emergency declaration today was this idea of early next week we could have half a million more testing kits going out around the country. we have 330 million people in the u.s. so ngdoctor, star with you, do you think that's going to make a difference? >> i think it wi help expand the ability for testing, and it will be other commercial ways to increase it as well. and i think we need to prioritize thoseof higher risk. >> and laura, what are what were your main takeaways from the conference? it seemed more like a rapey at times quite frankly. >> yeah. it was one of the more measure trfb things we've seen from donald trump, and i appriate the q & a at the end where he was colabing with our governor.

that was kind of interesting. and it was this tone of american exceptionalism and sort of placing the blame on other countries and highlighting of how wonderful a response we've seen here when a lot of the response has also been delayed and criticized for being delaye >> doctor, the county has been as heart hit as some of the otheconties in the bay area. just bring us up to speed on where th are in number of cases. >> sure. and i would like talk about response. we updated our department's re onse of monitoring this on january 22nd and, you know, ation of emergency and i state declared a local emergency on march 1st because of the workload and travelers coming in from china g d mopter them. we've been monitoring the situation and working on a local public health level

active ivly. and now we just had available for lab testing as well and more access to lab testing. sewe anticipated more cases just as more labs were able to run. >> and we also heard from the oakland unified school district saying they are canceling classes for a couple of weeks following a couple of other districts in the state. first of all, i dont to ask you you think it was the right call? >> so i think it was difficult decisions. and these decisions e especially difficult with a lack of hard data. it has been a lot of modeling and talking about flattening thepidemic curve and pandemic curve. a lot of it was done in pandemic influenza. we'll talk about the differencebetween the covid- 19 virus and thvifls. so i think we all do need to continue the weigh the impact of school closures, and they

posted a guidance on march 12th from the cdc, it was concerns about possible children in schools with cases who to my derstand having tested negative that caused a cascade of bay area school districts around the bay. and they posted that the schoola closuresnot be the most squs prioritize the mitigation mmunity. mpact in our >> is it your position that you agree with that? that based on the case studies this won't actually make a at difference? >> wlel, again, the data is minil. so i support the difficult decisions that these district officials are making along with the potential health impact, the other mademands bein on the administration. i think it's a nice time to plan for the ofility the longer closures, but i have

that it might not have an impact that people think it will, and it is potentia downstream impacts. >> and they are widespread impacts from this no doubt. i wato talk to you about the impact on first responders because down in san jose, we're seeing four firefighters have ed teositive for the coronavirus. so what's the impact going to look like you think? >> so enthat situation, they quarantines the defire rtment. fethey quarantined 44 dnt people that worked there. i think we need to think about other first responders and s, those whose jobs involve going out and being in unthe coy. something we have to think about. >> and we can't work from home is anoer concern. >> absolutely. and i think adding to what you were saying about the scho closure, a lot has been around as i talkto health folks in

other countries and i think what is essential? what is that term essential? isntit esl that we close out schools. ms it sard to be the odd man out. it disrupts and takes people off the workforce and people who have to take care of their own children at home. >> you spent a lot of time qualing up hospitals and talking to officials around the bay area. where are their concerns right now? what's top of the mind for th? >> well, a lot were concerned about testing skits and still not having infer even though that number, the amount we can process day has moved to the thousandhere in californi with the collaboration of the public health department and es private enti and that's great to increase that number. it's still not enough though. they're concerned about personal ottive equipment, specifically, you know, space needs might be an issue, but we did see that, you know, potentially, we'll have even

hotels be repurposed if need be. and then they also talked about being just really nimble and creative. >> doctor, i want to ask you ont thatdo you feel that the county, can you assure residents there thatthe county is ready when it comes to the number of bins available, the number of res pirators in case h e several cases blossom into many more? >> we've elbeen working cl we have a disaster health coalition. we work closely with the hospital and healthcare nd providers,i think everyone needs to dust offer their pandemic pla and work on surge planning. different systems are thinking about as yomentioned ultimate care sites or setting up tents to see the out-patient. it spreads with sease and seeing potential of people coming in. i think we are ready and the helpful about ste various es of members of the jury, we can utilize through the emergency operation center and regional and state resource

tuesday request resources. ar we hit hard right now in the bay area. i think we'll be an early situation. so we can request resources from the e her part of state or country. >> so give us a reality check. how bad do you think it will get? >> well, we are as the world al organization said, we're in a pan deming, and i want people to takeit seriously. over 85% ofpeople will have a mild illness. and the most vulnerable is critically ill pior hlized, and the mortality iselated highly to those with health conditions and elderly. we are to protect our most vulnerable. >> with things changing so very quickly, what advice do you have to the public? how do we keep all of the news >> i think check in on a few

trusted reliable resources from time to time but don't consume the fire hose and really take care of one another and make sure those vulnerable people are getting ken care of. >> all right. it's good to have both of you here. >> thank you. thank you. wednesday night president trump delivered a primetime address to announce a 30-day ban on nearly all travelers from europe to halt the spread of the coronavirus in the u.s. sahe als he would urge congress to pass a pay roll tax cut and speak financl assistance for workers affected by the virus. k meanwhile stocmarkets rebounded today after suffering thr most singleworst day in over 30 years. they have been particularly hard hit as they cancel remotely. s and mandate >> right now is the ceo of the coffee house. and the public policy director

at the assistance chamber of welcome to you both. >> thanks for having us. >> let's start with you. you've been in business 60 years and 65 employees. how have you been fairing this week? >> it's been very rough to put it lightly. we have seen immedia cancellation in all of theicatoring we were going to be doing for the next month. our downtown location at 181 fremont, near the new transbay terminal seen wednesday it was 50 decree in sales and today been 70% and declare in the downtown location. we do a decent amount of business with r offices and office orders have completely stopped. even the apartment at the sciences has closed. we've definitely seen a humongous impact.

>> and you had to adjust. e way your employees work so far? >> the first thing we did was implement safety protocols in the cafe, so that we can continue operating as a business. so we are yting evng in to-go cups to reduce the amount of handling of customer cups and for here cups. we moved all the cream and sugar to the burista side, so the buristas lye the one touching it. and we're trying to keep our itcommsafe on that end. and reacting to the dr in sales, we had to cut ours dramatically. i'm trng hard not to let anyone off, so we've been pe encouraginle to go on partial unemployment, so they can stay employed with us and still get their benefit because all of our employees have healthcare and pay it off. so trying to keep them employe and benefits having a safety

net, it's really, really hard. >> and right, you're at the chamber of coerce, and it's a whole slew of business groups calling for san francisco to make acc modations. walk rough those. >> yeah. last week we realiz it's it's no longer to tell them visit the small businesses. we need them to step up especially with the issue of cash flow. we have those with 60, 70of drop in revenue. so we called for three firm things. one, the firmment of business xe until later in the year. the second, a waver of l fees, so store front fees, sidewalk, banner and sign fees. just waive them for small businesses in restaurants and the third is to expand unemployment insurance for

those who have short hours due to the coronavirus. and this is a way interest them to ride out this wave speak and the issue of debt is so important for small businesses, like yours especially. we were talking about how the st small business admition is offering loans to people like you. how helpful is that? >> it's a good start. it's a good start. low interest loans are a good start, but it's not solving the problem. it's like taking the cash flow and spreading it out over the next 10 years to provide a relief to small inrest i see how it seems like a quick fix solution. therare so many meaningful ways that the government could leave. if you did all of the fees that storefront business husband to pay. if we talk $5a 00 grant to

all businesses in the city without havian application or loan or carry debt for the e future, the the things that the government should look forward to. >> and the fact of the matter is that a lot of businesses are lev rnld all right, right >> yeah. these had series of very chipe debt. it is expensive to do business in the city. they sid what mase. they took on debt, so they could higher up and scale to a point of profit. >> when did this become real for you as a business? >> last week we had one of our five locations side of an office. it baimz real to me whethat office closed and that was immediate, and we got the call. and it's like ie offi

closed. you can't come to work tomorrow. luckily it was small and only a handful of employees. we were able to move them and em accommodate and when the work order hit, almost every tech comny, we had moved employees from one location to the other, and that location saw 50% immediate reduction, and it's getting worse. >> have youench seen anything like this >> i mean, the is the fires of 2017 and there we saw probably a 30% drop over the board in cafe sales. at but nothing compared to this. there's no wind in sight. when the rain came and air cleared, everyone went back about their normal daily routine. and we're not going to see that

this time and i think when we talk about having a black an moment, this is what a black swan means. we have companies enquurnling to go out for coffee and n a sectbuilt on lunch service. service that no longer exists. and we don't know what the longstanding relation shpship will be. >> what is the impact at macro >> it's at very least is 10s of millions of dollar. it's hard to put a number because the erscales widen day. we told you it was millions of we put a hard number on it, and we put a ban on rg gatherings. the warriors gagot canceled and lebron vaimz james game got

canceled. >> what could help you the most? >> i thintax defirfment is a great start, but i would like te comptax relief from city taxes right now. i mean, the unsecured property unsecured property tax, people oechb it exiss, lot. >> the city places cominghat -- you flipped it upside down, every would fall out. any unsecured property in your building, you have to pay an annual fee. la restaurants in parti we have hundreds of thousands of dollars in our restaurant. and that uchb secured property tax is a huge burdevery year. that's coming due.

i think the city wanted to make an impact specifically on restaurants. ul that be a great place to start. >> is this city for just pzs that did 5 $5 million of gross owrevenue or b that would immediately be a 50 $50 million stimulus shot into our local economy. and when we talk about the impact it has on the city budget, those are what we collect on an annual basis, come from small businesses. the city thhas gs like rainy day fund. i think this is the definition of a rainy day. >> we haven't talked about being nceled. you mentioned events. what is your uerstanding of the impact as it continues to snowball? >> i don't think hiwe ever about what kind of scale these tech conferences are and how much they give to the economy. we have printing content at the chamber which to 70% disappear because all of the

painting and what's sad if you're a printing company, you ordered it a year in advance. you spent $100,000 for inventory. we see that for it workers. yo>> thank for walking us through this. lauren is the ceo of the chamber of commerce. >> thanks for having us. >> this ek e maerjt soregz iv and system of lg released information on how to protect from the coronavirus. the assisted homes and facility, in washington state at least 22 people licked have died. canceling activities can increase the social isolation or deprthsion some seniors

already feel. joining me now is patrick. 's the found and director of the center of early suicide prevention on the institution for aging. welcome. >> thank you. >> and you have been working for the last several deckates on how to help the elder lay avoid social isolation. you set up things li the friendship line how does that work? >> it s created as a way to reduce lonelinals and so isolation particularly among older people or younger disabled. what we felt and believed at the time has to do with connections and what institute on ang. and i personally, as well as professionally believe that s connectito others is what binds us to life. so that was reallythe goal and friendship line is both accredited crisis hotline but also a warm line, so that older people don't have to be in a suicidal crisis to call us.

>> that connection is so important. we actually ove the numb your screen. it's 1-800-971-0016. patrick, how are you seeing that line being used right now? >> right now a lot of people are calling us. that ll be many more calls, and it's put aglittle sts on our resources which is a concern. and what they're mostly talking about their fears, their anxiety, theirworried about what going to happen to them, particularly those who are living alone and don't have rely any number of social interactions they can count on. so they really dependon us, and we're just noticing how scared and fearful people are. >> is therpaicularl at cese mind a in terms of offering hosight to people are reacting to the korean virus.

>> well, one that's stuck in my mind is from an older woman whos very isolated. and when she hears things abo minimizing, you know, social contact, that has made her very upset because she said i cannot bear being in my apartment by myself all y long. i have to get out. to go to the market. i go to a senior citizen and places ere other people are, and to be twee keep this social distancing thing has really made her mad and dismassed. she said i don't care if i get the coronavirus. it is better than being stuck in my apartment by myself. you know, loneliss and social isolation is a very serious concern for people. you know, and so we've felt that kind ofergy. >> so you're seeing defiance in cases like hers. what do you see to someone like

that we can first of al we validate their feelings especially me being 72 that i can understand wh she's saying, that to be alone, not have other people and at one sh poindid in her life, but she doesn't have that anymore because of death or geographical changes. and so she's mad, and i think she feels very discounted, that we n't say in our narrative that comes from the media or , ws papershey, we are paying particular attention to this high group risk of people that are older than the dults. >> hewhen i this sear as of cancellation that we see in places like seenious citizens and assisted filling society. we're talking about economic on rescisbut not social recession. this is a real, real concern that the kidnaps of these restrictions are going to have a negative impact on der

people are already lonely or isolate. >> and as a senior citizen, how are you doing? >> not so great? >> and the reason for that is, you know, experience what some of these concerns are. i live alone as well. and even though i have people in my life obviously, but to would get the virus and i have an underlying health issue, thatworries me. and to be quaurnt said in my apartmet could be very hard for me. i am out all the time. i mean, i'm never at home. shared that with older people who live alone. >> does it help that you are also watching out for other pe le, or does that create additional strelsh for you. >> it really lepz because what i'm erned about sthoge having to move from face-to- face contact with people to

tephone, d i'm a little arnshtiousatbout that. >> so an each of us do to support the elderly seenious citizens in our communities and own families? >> i think we have to ow who our neighbors are. stance society that we don't know who that older person, who has lived in the building for 30 years is. we could slip a note under the door and feeling ois lateed. here's a phone number you can call. we could say to someone in the grocery store y they look lon or isolated. we could just say hello to them and allow a conversation to happen. >> i think what we have done, you know, unfortunately, is to have, again,diance from older people due to ageism and, you know, other issues that we just don't connect anymore, and that worries me significantly. >> alright.

so pick up the phone, say hello, all great advice. patrick, thank you. >> thank you. >> and if you're 60 or older an adult living with a disuble, you can treech the line at 1- 800-979-0016. you can find more coverage online or in the box. thanks for joining us and good night. :

robe crisis of confidence shakes the nation. president trump: to unleash the full power of the federal government this effort today i'm officially declaring a national emergency. two very big words. robert: president trump is tested. like nevbefore. a divided congress takes a first step. >> testing. testing. testing. we can only defea this outbreak if we have aaccurate determination ofts scale and scope. robert: next. announcer: this is "washington week." funding is provided by -- >> before we talk about your investments, what's new? >> well, audrey's expecting. twins. >> grandparents. >> we want to put money aside for them so change in plans. >>