Ohio and Louisiana have joined nine other states in ordering residents to stay at home to help curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards announced the ‘stay at home’ directives at press conferences in their respective states on Sunday.
The orders affect some 16 million residents across both states and exempt those who work in essential services such as healthcare and the food industry.
‘The bottom line is we are in a race against time when it comes to this coronavirus and it’s rapid spread in Louisiana,’ Edwards said, as the number of cases in his state surpassed 830, including 20 deaths.
Louisiana and Ohio have joined nine other states in issuing statewide stay at home orders aimed at stemming the spread of the deadly coronavirus
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (left) and Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards (right) announced the ‘stay at home’ directives at press conferences in their respective states on Sunday
The Louisiana order will go into effect at 5pm Monday and continue at least until April 12.
It came two days after New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell announced a similar order for the state’s largest city.
In Ohio, where 351 cases have been reported and three people have died, the order will go into effect at midnight on Monday and remain at least until April 6.
‘Every piece of evidence that I can lay my hands on indicates that we’re at an absolutely crucial time in this war and what we do now will make all the difference in the world,’ DeWine said.
‘What we do now will slow this invader. It will slow this invader so our health care system … will have time to treat casualties.’
Ohio Department of Health Director Dr Amy Acton (pictured) spoke at DeWine’s press conference and estimated that 60 percent of the Ohio population will contract coronavirus
DeWine said that the order does permit a few exceptions – but only for essential tasks.
‘There is really nothing in that order, that we have not already been talking about,’ the governor said.
‘There’s nothing in that order, that I have not been asking you to do for the last week or so.’
Ohio Department of Health Director Dr Amy Acton also spoke at the press conference and said the currently available testing data doesn’t give a full picture of the state’s coronavirus crisis as many cases have likely gone unreported.
She estimated that 60 percent of the Ohio population will contract the disease at some point.
‘There is no time left,’ Acton said.
‘Listen to what Italy is telling us. Today is the day. We must do everything we can in our power to protect the people on the frontlines – the first responders and healthcare workers.’
As of Sunday more than 30,200 people in the US have tested positive for coronavirus and 386 have died since the nationwide outbreak began less than two months ago
The French Quarter of New Orleans – usually bustling with tourists and revelers – has become a ghost town since Mayor Latoya Cantrell imposed a shelter in place order on Friday
Statewide lockdowns have already been ordered in nine other states – New Jersey, California, New York, Illinois, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Texas and Florida – with a total of 167.5 million people now affected.
In announcing the New Jersey measures on Saturday, Governor Phil Murphy said: ‘My job is to make sure we get through this emergency so that you can safely gather with family and friends later.’
Murphy’s announcement came after the state’s top public health official said she believes ‘we all’ are going to eventually be infected by coronavirus.
‘I’m definitely going to get it. We all are. I’m just waiting,’ New Jersey Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli, 71, told a reporter for NJ.com in an interview published on Saturday.
Persichilli said she based her prediction on algorithms that predict the spread of the virus, and that she would most likely suffer a mild case that lasted a few days, as the majority who contract the virus do.
She added that she may not get the virus this month or this year, but that she fears it is coming for everyone.
The Garden State now has 890 confirmed cases and 11 deaths, making it one of several rapidly growing hotspots across the country.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy issued an order on Saturday mandating that all non-essential retail businesses close their stores and almost all state residents stay home
NJ Department of Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli (above) said of coronavirus: ‘I’m definitely going to get it. We all are. I’m just waiting’
The strict lockdowns now have millions of Americans ordered to stay home, and mandated the closing of all non-essential business, decimating jobs.
An estimated three million Americans will file unemployment claims next week, marking the highest number of new jobless claims ever seen in US history.
Bars, restaurants, stores and casinos lie boarded up across the US as the nation’s once heaving cities have turned into ghost towns after state-wide mandates have ordered one in five Americans to stay at home.
Fears are ramping up around how many Americans will find themselves on the breadline, struggling to survive and feed their families, as President Donald Trump warned that the pandemic is escalating to a level that he may throw the entire nation into lockdown for two weeks.
In New York, carpenters in protective gear were seen boarding up the closed beauty store Sephora on 34th Street, Manhattan
In the last 48 hours, eleven states issued the most extreme measures to date, ordering 100 percent of their non-essential workforces not to go to work.
The long-term implications are even more concerning, with escalating fears that the US is headed for a recession.
Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist for MUFG, warned that the US will turn from ‘the best economy in history to the worst economy in history in not even two months’ if the shutdown situation continues.
‘Get out, get out while you can before they shutter the whole darn United States. A stunning reversal of fortune for the best economy in history to the worst economy in history in not even two months. The fastest recession in history. With no one spending a dime, it will stay that way a long, long time,’ Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist for MUFG told The Hour.
‘We are looking at something quite grave,’ added economist Janet Yellen, the former Federal Reserve chair.
‘If businesses suffer such serious losses and are forced to fire workers and have their firms go into bankruptcy, it may not be easy to pull out of that.’
This grave warnings fly in the face of Donald Trump’s continued optimism over the crisis.
The president made the bold claim that the economy would be ‘come back really fast’ like a ‘rocket ship’ in a press conference on Thursday.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that applications for benefits, a good proxy for layoffs, had already surged by 70,000 to 281,000 claims last week.
