Coronavirus: Jacksonville comes to a halt, for some
One difference between the coronavirus scare and hurricanes: low fuel prices. Gas was selling for $2.01 at Gate and Daily’s stations on Roosevelt Boulevard Health experts believe social distancing -- limiting social interaction as much as possible -- is one of the most effective ways to slow down the spread of the novel coronavirus. Of course, in Jacksonville News, there are ways to do that in a distinct way -- outside.
“The Beaches are OPEN,” City Councilman Rory Diamond tweeted Saturday, with a video of his dog splashing through the water.
City parks and preserves are closed, but state and federal sites remained open.
It also provided an excuse for local gallows humour: What’s the best way to avoid contact with your fellow residents? Attend a Jaguars game.
Rob Deal had the outdoor patio of Starbucks in San Marco while savoring a cup of coffee following his usual nine-mile run early Saturday morning.
Deal said normally, the coffee shop would be filling up with customers instead of the one or two people who started to trickle in by 8:20 a.m.
“At this time usually on Saturday morning, the whole place would be full inside, and the patio would be busy,” Deal said.
Some might simply might have slept in. But it’s also likely some also stayed away because of concern about the pandemic
Deal said he hasn’t changed any of his habits because of the virus.
“I’m still running and still coming up here afterward,” he said.
But he is taking more precautions against the virus.
“I’m washing my hands more often, using hand sanitizers, wiping things down, and less interaction with people and using something to grab a door versus an open hand,” Deal said.
Deal also said he’ traveling less and is doing social distancing as much as possible.
The novel coronavirus outbreak quickly overshadowed what would normally be a high-profile weekend in Northeast Florida. The Players Championship in Ponte Vedra is a major event that local officials also view as a crucial part of the region’s economic development strategy. The PGA commissioner, calling it “our Super Bowl,” sought to unsuccessfully to ward off a full cancellation.
“It’s the right decision. ... Of course, it’s the right decision,” top-ranked golfer Rory McIlroy said Friday. “If, in a few weeks’ time, this dies down and everything is OK, it’s still the right decision.”
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The pandemic has also crowded out divisive local political issues of the moment. JEA, the city-owned utility, announced it would not shut off electric or water services for late payments, and Mayor Lenny Curry and the Duval County School Board have been acting cooperatively and in tandem on response measures.
Curry has expressed frustration toward the state for not sharing information about infections with local governments faster.
The popular Fox Restaurant in Avondale across the river was filled with its mostly regular Saturday morning crowd of customers.
The 49-seat breakfast and lunch restaurant typically has a line out the door by 9 a.m. most weekends. It was just shy of that threshold Saturday.
“We’re a small restaurant ... and we’re really known as a clean establishment and a sanitized establishment. We’ve kept that in place. We clean and Press Release Distribution Services In Jacksonville sanitize it every day, and we have for the last 20 years,” owner Ian Chase said. “We’re also taking more obvious steps to outwardly show the guests that we’re doing these things.”
Chase said the cancellation of The Players Championship because of the virus probably was another reason their early breakfast crowd was a little light.
But they weren’t hit as hard by the tournament cancellation as other restaurants or food truck vendors who rely on that business.
“This is the time for me just to reassure our regular guests, our ultra-regular guests, that we’re looking out for them and want them to have a great experience in the midst of all this madness,” he said. “You come to The Fox and leave the world behind, have a meal, relax and enjoy.”
The atmosphere in the community, Chase said, is one of “gloom and doomsday in full effect about the virus.”
“We can feel the anxiety in the air when you are out and about,” he said.
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