Santa Clara County Bans All Gatherings of 1000+ People After Coronavirus Death

[MacRumors]

The County of Santa Clara's Public Health Department today issued a mandatory order that requires all mass gatherings of 1,000 or more people in Santa Clara County to be canceled.

Santa Clara County includes cities like Cupertino, Palo Alto, Mountain View, and San Jose, and it is the county where Apple's two main campuses are located along with many of its satellite offices.

Last week, county officials issued guidelines suggesting that companies in the area minimize or cancel large in-person meetings and conferences, but the new ban is a requirement that will prevent any major gatherings.

The ban takes effect at 12:00 a.m. Pacific Time on March 11 and for now, will last for three weeks. Santa Clara County is putting the ban in place as it waits for more widespread testing and for more details on how COVID-19 spreads.

"This is a critical moment in the growing outbreak of COVID-19 in Santa Clara County. The strong measures we are taking today are designed to slow the spread of disease," said Dr. Sara Cody, Santa Clara County Health Officer. "Today's order and new recommendations will reduce the number of people who develop severe illness and will help prevent our healthcare system from becoming overwhelmed. This is critically important for anyone with healthcare needs, not just those most vulnerable to serious illness from COVID-19."

The three-week ban will only last until the beginning of April, but ahead of when the mandatory ban was in place, tech companies had already started canceling events. Both Facebook and Google have canceled planned developer events set to take place in May that would have had around 5,000 attendees.

Apple still has not made any announcements about WWDC, which is typically held in June at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California, and the length of this ban will not affect June plans, but with the growing number of coronavirus cases in the county, Apple may cancel the event as a precaution.

Apple could still provide WWDC content in a digital format with online presentations for media and developers, but it's not entirely clear what the company's plan is at this time. We should be hearing soon, as Apple normally announces WWDC info right around this time in March.

The county's decision to blanket ban all events of 1,000 or more people comes as Santa Clara County experienced its first death due to the coronavirus. Santa Clara County has a total of 43 known COVID-19 cases, with more in other counties in the Bay Area.

Article Link: Santa Clara County Bans All Gatherings of 1000+ People After Coronavirus Death

 

[I7guy]

This is going to get much, much worse before it starts to get better.

 

[newyorksole]

Man... This virus is disrupting everything.

I’m almost 29 years old and haven’t experienced anything like this before. Living in New York I do remember Hurricane Sandy and 9/11 vividly, more than Anthrax, SARS etc.

This is wayyy different.

 

[Blackstick]

WWDC will be a virtual thing this year for sure...

 

[Professor Rucy]

This is going to get much, much worse before it starts to get better.

This PANIC is going to get much, much worse before it starts to get better.
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WWDC will be a virtual thing this year for sure...

Groups of individuals will still have to come together to set the damn event up–can’t all be done remotely and can’t all be done without physical interaction with groups of people.

 

[NewZealandGala]

I understand that if there’s a March event, it will be live streamed, and the media will view it remotely, same as the public.

 

[Professor Rucy]

I’m almost 29 years old and haven’t experienced anything like this before. Living in New York I do remember Hurricane Sandy and 9/11 vividly, more than Anthrax, SARS etc.

This is wayyy different.

Were you alive during H1N1 in the last decade? Or the FLU in the last year?

 

[cmaier]

This PANIC is going to get much, much worse before it starts to get better.
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Groups of individuals will still have to come together to set the damn event up–can’t all be done remotely and can’t all be done without physical interaction with groups of people.

 

[rosyapple]

I really hope there's still a March event/announcement, even if it's for streaming only. I'm hoping for at least MBP 14 and/or iPhone SE2 announcement this month.

 

[dannyyankou]

It’ll be interesting to see how this impacts the 2020 election with regards to rallies and stuff.

Also there’s a good chance the NBA playoffs could be played with no crowds.

 

[nfl46]

It's so difficult finding Lysol wipes nowadays. Sold out just about everywhere.

 

[Deacon-Blues]

Were you alive during H1N1 in the last decade? Or the FLU in the last year?

I was going to make this comment. We had a pandemic in 2009 that people seem to forget, H1N1. Here in the US 12,000 people died, 265,000 were hospitalized, and 59 Million were infected. It was damn scary because it hit hard and was killing indiscriminately, including young people. Let’s hope this won’t be as bad as it was in 2009.

 

[Mansu944]

This is so stupid. And overblown.

 

[calzon65]

A lot more than a 1000 gather at the Apple campus.

 

[konqerror]

Groups of individuals will still have to come together to set the damn event up–can’t all be done remotely and can’t all be done without physical interaction with groups of people.

Have you seen Apple's non-WWDC developer videos? It could easily be done by somebody sitting at a desk with a microphone and e-mailing the Keynote slides and audio for editing.

There is not any significant loss without the applause and video of somebody walking on a stage.

Metal Enhancements for A13 Bionic - Tech Talks - Videos - Apple Developer

Metal brings powerful API features and GPU-driven capabilities to A13 Bionic including sparse textures, vertex amplification, Tier 2...

developer.apple.com

 

[1applerules1]

A virus that only fatally affects the old and health compromised public is blow way out of proportion. HIV is worse and you don’t see anyone crying about it.

 

[cmaier]

A virus that only fatally affects the old and health compromised public is blow way out of proportion. HIV is worse and you don’t see anyone crying about it.

Redirect

 

[MEJHarrison]

Have you seen Apple's non-WWDC developer videos? It could easily be done by somebody sitting at a desk with a microphone and e-mailing the Keynote slides and audio for editing.

It would probably improve a lot of them as there wouldn't be the pressure of a live audience.

 

[konqerror]

HIV is worse and you don’t see anyone crying about it.

Despite what people think, HIV is not a major cause of death in the US due to management by antiretroviral drugs. HIV kills less than 6,000 people per year, the same as Hepatitis. More people die from alcoholism (22,200), accidental strangulation (7,000), and C. difficile infection (6,100) as HIV/AIDS.

 

[Cosmosent]

WOW !

But surprised the threshold is 1K, & NOT MUCH, MUCH Lower !

 

[Professor Rucy]

Have you seen Apple's non-WWDC developer videos? It could easily be done by somebody sitting at a desk with a microphone and e-mailing the Keynote slides and audio for editing.

There is not any significant loss without the applause and video of somebody walking on a stage.

Metal Enhancements for A13 Bionic - Tech Talks - Videos - Apple Developer

Metal brings powerful API features and GPU-driven capabilities to A13 Bionic including sparse textures, vertex amplification, Tier 2...

developer.apple.com

Yeah, I’m so sure everyone from stockholders to investors to developers to marketers would be completely satisfied with an unboxing video. *rollseyes*

 

[MEJHarrison]

HIV is worse and you don’t see anyone crying about it.

A lot of things are worse. So what? This isn't a competition where only one bad thing can survive to the final round. I might trip and break my neck later going down the stairs. But that doesn't mean no other bad things can happen to me or that I should ignore this bad thing. HIV and the Coronavirus aren't logically connected. So don't connect them. One has nothing to do with the other and no meaningful conclusions can be inferred from comparing them. Stop acting like the existence of one precludes the other from being something serious.

 

[konqerror]

Yeah, I’m so sure everyone from stockholders to investors to developers to marketers would be completely satisfied with an unboxing video. *rollseyes*

WWDC announcements are almost always software, specifically software which will be available in September. There isn't anything you can't show with screen captures.

Besides, it's not like the thousands of people at a keynote can see a single iPhone anyway, it's all video and screen projection.

 

[Baymowe335]

View attachment 898355

She isn’t posting anything but the very stuff that causes the panic. It’s sad when people die...I understand that. But the scale is nothing even close to the flu at this point. Imagine if we reported every case of the flu, pneumonia, or any other disease. We live in a world with constant updates from the media and crazy prognostications that extrapolate small data points into 1 in 3 Americans will be infected and you’ll know someone who dies from Covid19.

Social media totally distorts the scale of everything and people speak in these broad strokes that feed off each other until it’s a frenzy.

She’s right...coronavirus isn’t the flu...it’s not nearly as bad.

We should take precautions but we should take precautions for many viruses. I guess we have just given up on containing the flu?

 

[MEJHarrison]

Yeah, I’m so sure everyone from stockholders to investors to developers to marketers would be completely satisfied with an unboxing video. *rollseyes*

WWDC is a "Developers Conference". Why should they cater the event to those other groups? This isn't their event and they're not why the event takes place.