Reporting for duty: Airline crew sign up to help hospitals

To prevent people from losing their homes due to lack of paying rent or during the coronavirus pandemic, the L.A. County Supervisor issued an executive order that prevents landlords from evicting their tenants. To apply, the renter must demonstrate their "inability to pay due to COVID-19 financial impacts."

When Henrico County Fire Department began to respond to calls for people exhibiting signs of coronavirus, they began utilizing recommendations of how best to stay safe. Although restrictive, this new playbook helps emergency responders stay safe by "limiting the number of responders that go into a facility" and encourages nursing homes to bring patients "as close to the ambulance entrance as possible."

A variety of AI tools are being used by the healthcare industry to try to identify cases of coronavirus. Although it's not yet clear which will be most successful in doing so, tools such as automated chatboxes, algorithms to identify at-risk people, and the use of modeling and projections are all being piloted to help aid hospitals, clinicians, and patients.

When the Bay Area issued a shelter-in-place order as a response to containing the spread of COVID-19, businesses had to adapt. From a local distillery creating hand sanitizer at cost, to a restaurant offering groceries, to a catering business selling drive-through meals, local businesses have gotten creative to maintain revenue and pay employees.

As city schools closed in response to the COVID19 pandemic, New York City opened Regional Enrichment Centers for children of essential personnel. With 93 operating sites, they anticipate caring for about 57,000 children, although attendance so far has been low. Certain precautions are being taken, too, like routine wellness checks for participants and employees, on-site nurses, and constant cleaning and disinfecting.

With experience from past regional disasters and supply-chain disruptions, supermarket chain H-E-B faced the coronavirus chaos with calm preparation, ensuring employees and management act quickly to mitigate their losses - and to keep their shoppers healthy. The chain got a head start by asking suppliers in heavily affected areas - like Italy - for tips and tricks, enforcing early-on social distancing rules, and increasing sick leave for employees.

The coronavirus outbreak has had a detrimental impact on economies due to business and industry closures but some Chinese enterprises have implemented strategies to help recover faster. From early on-set crisis teams that drove uniform change throughout chain businesses to redeploying employees to other stores and encouraging an online presence, some businesses throughout the region have already reported positive gains overall.

Thousands of people in Wuhan, China are volunteering to buy groceries, get medicine, and take community members to the hospital as a means to help those that need it during the coronavirus outbreak. Although the volunteers do not knowingly transport anyone diagnosed with coronavirus, the drivers wear protective clothing during their drives, which are organized by local neighborhood committees.

Grocery stores across the United States frantically respond to the "panic buying" brought on by fear of the coronavirus quarantine. As Americans rapidly stock up on supplies, grocery stores expand their network of suppliers, working with farmers, restaurant distributors, and others to find creative solutions to the bottleneck problem of keeping food and goods on their shelves.

Milwaukee's nonprofits serving youth are finding new ways to check in and connect with their students as the coronavirus rules out the possibility for in-person afterschool programming. “Social distancing doesn’t mean social disconnection," the director of a community organization said. "We want to encourage youth to stay in touch with each other and with trusted adults."