Coronavirus cases update / Mortgage relief / Small business situation / Transit assistance
Coronavirus cases update
Let’s start with the latest numbers of COVID-19 cases in California as of last night. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the state has 3,166 confirmed cases of Coronavirus — that’s an increase of about 15 percent. Six more people died, bringing the total to 61. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, the rate of infection slowed in the last day: there are 1,176 confirmed cases — an increase of about 9 percent over the previous day. One more person died, bringing the total to 26.
Mortgage relief
Yesterday, at what’s become a daily press conference, Governor Gavin Newsom announced relief for home owners. He said that Wells Fargo, Citi, JPMorgan, and US Bank have agreed to a 90 day grace period for mortgage payments for people impacted by COVID 19. Some state legislators called for similar relief for people who pay rent.
Small business situation
The governor also said that one million Californians have applied for unemployment benefits. And he said that in the coming weeks, all levels of government need to focus more on individuals and small businesses:
“And that’s why I say we need to focus on those faces, on their stories, not just the face of government, not just the face of business, but on the faces of individuals day-in and day-out that are struggling to make ends meet. Struggling to feed their families. Struggling to feed themselves, to get to the needs of their small businesses. Small businesses need more support.”
Transit assistance
Support could be coming for many in the Bay Area because of the two trillion dollar federal stimulus package. It includes 25 billion dollars in relief funding for public transit agencies across the country.
The transit funding will help BART and other local public transit agencies shore up losses in fare revenue as millions of people stay in their homes. BART officials have said the agency's ridership is down about 90 percent. Its monthly revenue is down about 57 million dollars.
