At the Jersey Shore, is social distancing even possible? | Coronavirus Newsletter

TL;DR: Pennsylvania’s public health nurses are the state’s medical detectives, alerting people they have COVID-19 and identifying who else may have it, but we don’t have enough of them. This summer, you may have to wear a mask on the beach, if the beaches are even open. Officials, marketers, property managers and business owners across shore towns are trying to figure out how to avoid the economic disaster of losing an entire season to the coronavirus. The Inquirer asked spoken word artists Luis Marrero and Carina Paulino to write a letter of resilience to Philadelphia. Watch and listen here.

— Ellie Silverman (@esilverman11, health@inquirer.com)

🏥 More than 50,000 people have died from the coronavirus in the United States.

🍷 The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board will open nearly all liquor stores for curbside pick up starting Monday.

💰Officials say the financial impact of the pandemic on Philadelphia could include budget cuts up to 20% to city departments and a $1 billion budget hole for the school district over the next five years.

📓 Delaware schools are closed through the rest of the academic year.

🇺🇸 President Donald Trump dangerously encouraged people to ingest disinfectants to fight coronavirus. Now he says he was being “sarcastic.”

🏦 Nearly 100,000 self-employed or gig workers in Pennsylvania have filed for unemployment, as they are newly eligible to qualify for under federal relief. If you aren’t sure if you are eligible, here are some tips.

📈As of Friday evening, there are more than 27,300 reported cases in the Philadelphia area. Track the spread here.

Pennsylvania’s public health nurses are the state’s medical detectives, alerting people they have COVID-19 and identifying who else may have it: When did your symptoms start? Where have you traveled? Can you remember every person you interacted with during the past two weeks? Locating infected people, and their contacts, is called contact tracing, and it would mean quarantine measures could just be applied to them, instead of across all of society. This model has been successful in countries like South Korea, Taiwan, and Iceland. But here, in Pennsylvania, there aren’t enough of these nurses. Here’s why.

This summer, you may have to wear a mask on the beach, if the beaches are even open. Officials, marketers, property managers and business owners across shore towns — Cape May, Ocean City, Ventnor, Wildwood, Margate — have pretty much accepted the usual Memorial Day weekend festivities cannot happen. Now they are looking to mid-to-late June or the Fourth of July, trying to figure out how to avoid the economic disaster of losing an entire season to the coronavirus. Read about some of their ideas, from timed entry to the beach, reconfiguring miniature golf holes, and temperature checks outside bars.

Some travel companies are changing cancellation policies to address the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic, but many of those policies only apply to the next few weeks or month. My colleague Marc Narducci outlines if and how you can get your money back from canceled flights, hotels, Airbnbs, and online travel sites, and whether the state office of attorney general can help with refunds. Read more here.

🍅 Here is how our restaurant critic Craig LaBan gets his groceries during the coronavirus pandemic.

😴 Coronavirus keeping you up at night? Experts offer 10 tips for better sleep.

🍺 Manayunk Brewing Company is giving free beer to first responders, health care workers, and essential personnel today and tomorrow. See photos from today’s event here.

Have a social distancing tip or question to share? Let us know at health@inquirer.com and your input might be featured in a future edition of this newsletter.

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