WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite pockets of attention-grabbing protests, a new survey finds Americans remain overwhelmingly in favor of stay-at-home orders and other efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus. A majority say it won’t be safe to lift such restrictions anytime soon, even as a handful of governors announce plans to ease within days the public health efforts that have upended daily life and roiled the global economy.

The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that more than a month after schoolyards fell silent, restaurant tables and bar stools emptied, and waves from a safe distance replaced hugs and handshakes, the country largely believes restrictions on social interaction to curb the spread of the virus are appropriate.

Only 12% of Americans say the measures where they live go too far. About twice as many people, 26%, believe the limits don’t go far enough. The majority of Americans — 61% — feel the steps taken by government officials to prevent infections of COVID-19 in their area are about right.

About 8 in 10 Americans say they support measures that include requiring Americans to stay in their homes and limiting gatherings to 10 people or fewer — numbers that have largely held steady over the past few weeks...

https://apnews.com/9ed271ca13012d3b77a2b631c1979ce1

https://twitter.com/APNORC/status/1253043394789720070

Duval County opened its beaches Friday evening — with certain restrictions — but it appears that the stir-crazy crowds weren’t following the social distancing rules. And now, a #FloridaMorons hashtag started trending on Twitter Saturday afternoon as social media users posted pictures on Twitter and Facebook of shorelines full of people in the Jacksonville area, The Orlando Sentinel reported.

...“The scene at Jacksonville Beach wasn’t one of caution in the middle of a worldwide pandemic,” reported CNN. “Crowds cheered and flooded the beach when police took the barriers down. People were seen swimming, biking, surfing, running and fishing. “Social distancing seemed to be the last thing on anyone’s mind Friday.”

But not everyone saw it that way. Two hours after the beaches opened, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, who wanted beaches open, retweeted Jacksonville councilman Rory Diamond’s aerial photo of an empty stretch of beach where only a few people are visible — like a handful of stray ants. “Thank you Jacksonville. I appreciate your social distancing and responsible behavior as we opened our beaches for walking, swimming, running etc.,” Curry tweeted. “No groups congregating. ... Well done Jax.”

The image was immediately challenged by Floridians who, in a state ravaged by the coronavirus — with the numbers of confirmed cases and deaths growing by the hour — think re-opening public spaces like beaches in the middle of a pandemic is premature. “What about the 5:20 pm shot literally everyone else saw?” asked a Jacksonville resident who posts as Guido. Others posted drone photos from Action News JAX’s televised report that tell another story as people are seen jamming the sands and waters.

“Why is he deliberately posting Rory’s deliberately misleading photos from the deserted part of north Neptune Beach? Far from where the action is on Jax beach,” posted @stephendare, who is described as an “urban activist” on Twitter...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/covid-19-is-not-here-bro-at-floridas-reopened-beaches-crowds-gather-tempers-flare/ar-BB12QBdZ

A quick-thinking Finnish bakery has saved itself from financial ruin due to the new coronavirus pandemic by creating a cake that looks like a toilet paper roll.

The dismayed staff at the Ronttosrouva bakery found all their orders cancelled last month, at the same time as panicked consumers began to hoard toilet paper rolls.

This sparked the idea of a toilet roll cake made of oat batter, passion fruit mousse and covered with white fondant.

The first five cakes sold within an hour, baker Uliana Timofeeva told Reuters, and the cake became a social media hit.

The bakery now has hundreds of orders and its owner Saana Lampinen has even been able to hire two extra people to her 9-member team.

https://www.fijivillage.com/news/Finnish-bakers-toilet-roll-cakes-keep-profits-rolling-in-f45rx8

https://twitter.com/ClarenceHouse/status/1245314751967756288

Janice Preschel, a tireless community volunteer who founded the Helping Hands Food Pantry in Teaneck, died Monday at Holy Name Medical Center of complications of the coronavirus. She was 60.

Preschel was known by many in Teaneck because of her widespread community outreach. She was a three-term president of the Teaneck Rotary and an active member of Temple Emeth and served on the township’s Social Services Advisory Board.

Even from her hospital bed, Preschel was arranging with pantry volunteers to give extra food to families in need during the coronavirus crisis and making plans to donate gift certificates from local restaurants to ICU nurses at Holy Name through the Rotary.

... Five years ago, she was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder that took her sight, but she continued her work as director of the pantry, raising money and collecting food for hundreds of families in need.

When she was awarded the Matthew Feldman Community Service Award in 2015, she credited her volunteerism and the support of the community with aiding in her recovery.

"I'm not doing everything I did a year ago. I'm doing less, and it takes me longer, but volunteering has definitely helped in my recovery," she told the Teaneck Suburbanite, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey. "Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it really takes a community to help you get over a debilitating illness. I've been so blessed with the support I've had."

https://twitter.com/GovMurphy/status/1245396943507009537
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.northjersey.com/amp/5103971002

At 860 Grand Concourse, a residential apartment building in the Bronx, the doorman’s post is just inside the front door, on a landing between two flights of stairs. One of them leads up to the offices of a dentist and a lawyer, who, along with several physicians, rent commercial space. The other leads past two pairs of gold-painted columns into the main lobby, where an elevator services seven floors with a hundred and eleven apartments. Tuesday through Saturday, between eight in the morning and five in the evening, tenants coming up or down from the lobby could expect a greeting from a trim, punctilious man with close-cropped hair. He wore a navy-blue uniform that hung loosely off his narrow shoulders. His name was Juan Sanabria.

There was an art to Sanabria’s salutations. Dana Frishkorn, who’s lived in the building for three and a half years, appreciated that he called her by her first name when she entered, and never failed to tell her “Take care” when she left. Yet somehow Sanabria knew that Anthony Tucker, who has spent five years in the building, preferred to be called by his last name. “Hey, Tuck,” Sanabria would say, extending his hand for a fist bump. When Tony Chen, who runs a boutique tour company and lives on the seventh floor, limped into the building one morning, addled by plantar fasciitis, Sanabria showed him a foot stretch that helped. On another afternoon, when a tenant showed up at the front door with a large couch to take up to his apartment, even though the building’s rules mandated the use of a side door, Sanabria stood watch to make sure a meddlesome neighbor didn’t wander over.

Uncharacteristically, Sanabria wasn’t around the last week of February. His eighty-two-year-old mother, with whom he shared an apartment on Ogden Avenue, was suffering from emphysema; he’d been taking her to a nearby hospital. When word got around the building that Sanabria’s mother was ill, no one was surprised to learn that he was by her side. “It was who he was,” Jimmy Montalvo, one of the other doormen, told me. Montalvo and Sanabria were neighbors—Montalvo got his job at the building through Sanabria, three years ago—and frequently had breakfast together at their corner bodega; Sanabria was always bringing food back for his mother, Montalvo said. “He took good care of her.” Even when Sanabria was away from 860 Grand Concourse, during a break or on his days off, he gave the impression that he was never far. James Tirado, the youngest and newest doorman on staff, used to get calls and texts from Sanabria, checking up on him. “How’s the day going?” Sanabria would ask. “Is everything going O.K. for you?”

By the time his mother’s health had improved, and Sanabria returned to work, on March 3rd, he was beginning to feel ill himself...

https://www.newyorker.com/news/postscript/the-life-and-death-of-juan-sanabria-one-of-new-york-citys-first-coronavirus-victims

https://twitter.com/protectheflames/status/1241403715036291072