All of a sudden, in one bold move, the Bay Area on Monday became a very strange place.
For the first time in history, to help corral the deadly coronavirus, residents across seven counties were ordered by health officials to shelter in place for all but “essential activities” — and confusion, bewilderment and fear began to take hold.
“It’s very unreal. It’s very scary. It’s a trip,” said Aileen Blackstone, manager of Bishops Cut/Color hair salon in downtown Campbell that had not had a single customer inside and barely a pedestrian outside along the usually bustling sidewalk. “We knew it was going to come, but not so drastic and not so quick.”
With the prospect of the coronavirus spreading exponentially beyond Santa Clara County — one of four infected hotspots across the country — authorities were adamant that people isolate themselves in their homes through April 7. As San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo put it, “history will not forgive us for waiting an hour more.”
For those who will lose business and paychecks, the dire consequences of what “shelter in place” really means — the enormity and historic nature of it — began to sink in Monday afternoon.
“I just got a call an hour ago,” said Raquel Chun, a house cleaner and office building custodian from Oakland, buying groceries at Gazzali’s Supermarket in the Eastmont neighborhood. “They canceled all of my cleaning jobs this week. And now this order to stay home for three weeks, what am I going to do? I still need to get food, I need to pay bills, I need to pay rent. Landlords don’t wait for rent. Kids can’t wait to be fed.”
At Comal, a popular downtown Berkeley restaurant, owner Andrew Hoffman was trying to come to terms with what the extended closure of his business means to so many.
“It happened so fast it hasn’t quite caught up to everyone just yet. It’s going to become very real to people very soon,” he said. “We have 125 employees that all just lost their job. It’s heartbreaking.”
Hoffman said he’s giving away all the remaining food from his coolers “that would go bad if it’s not eaten” to his employees.
In tiny Port Costa, The Warehouse Cafe did the same. On Monday, the staff put leftover bread, lettuce, tomatoes and other vegetables on a table for neighbors in this town of 200 people to take for themselves.
“There isn’t really much around here, and the grocery stores are being run dry,” bartender Scotty Hopkins said.
In San Jose, Joe Gilbert, 30, who owns a hair salon, is “freaking out. We only make money if we’re doing hair.”
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For those at highest risk of becoming infected, especially the elderly or those with other ailments, the lockdown was as reassuring as it was worrisome.
“I think the restrictions are good. I’m 70 and I have a lung disorder and COPD and I feel like I’m getting pneumonia,” said Rick Ortega, of Campbell. “We have a residence in Scottsdale, Arizona, where it is warmer, and my son is telling me I should go there.”
He was also grateful for a knock on his door a few minutes earlier from neighbor Emily Elert, 37, who with her 3-year-old was distributing flyers offering food and medicine deliveries from her newly-gathered cadre of volunteers. Similar grassroots givers were mobilizing across the Bay Area, including in the East Bay, where 24-year-old Sarbdeep Sadana was reaching out to his friends to help the isolated elderly.
“I sent out a group chat for calls to aid,” Sadana said Monday. “If anyone needs groceries, let’s just do it.”
The near lockdown came in the form of a legal order from the counties of Santa Clara, Contra Costa, San Mateo, San Francisco, Alameda, Marin and Santa Cruz. Any violation or failure to comply would be considered an “imminent threat to public health” and could be punishable by fine or imprisonment.
People can leave their homes only to perform “essential activities,” including shopping for food or helping elderly loved ones, or visiting one of the essential businesses defined by the counties. Those businesses include grocery stores, gas stations, banks, airports, newspapers, restaurants providing carry-out food, laundry services and a few others. Outdoor activities, including walking, hiking and running, are allowed, but congregating is not.
The order includes several conditions, but by Monday afternoon there was still confusion.
“Is it Martial Law? What will happen if I don’t do it?” asked Billy Vainer, 34, a dentist who was trying to digest exactly what the order meant to his daily life.
For him, though, staying home won’t be the worst thing. His fiancée, Kadee Marshall, just flew in Monday morning from Puerto Rico.
“In all honesty, if I’m going to be quarantined,” she said, “I’m going to be with the person I love the most.”
Runs on grocery stores and gas stations continued as they have for a week. But with just hours left before the new restrictions took effect at midnight, and uncertainty over which businesses could remain open, odd and unlikely things became essential: puzzles, chocolate and marijuana.
At Oakland’s Walden Pond Books, which will close its doors for the duration of the order, there’s been a run on fiction, staff members said Monday.
“A lot of tomes, really thick books,” were being snatched from the shelves as people prepare for isolation ahead, said Kyle Runyon, the store’s new-books buyer. So were trilogies and longer series, “and a lot of Stephen King.”
In San Jose, Ingrid Kambe was one of a number of people streaming into See’s Candies on West San Carlos Street.
“It would be traumatic without our Easter candy from See’s!” Kambe said.
Kim Bick-Maurischat loaded up her car with flowers at Summerwinds Nursery.
“If I’m going to be home for the next two and a half weeks, I’m going to plant flowers,” the San Jose meditation instructor said.
As soon as Alicia Frumenti heard Monday’s news, she texted her friend Brittany Parlanti.
“We gotta go shopping!?” she wrote.
Parlanti, who lives in Pleasant Hill, texted back, “OMG, I’m on my way.”
As difficult as the situation is for so many people, some tried to boost spirits in the final hours before mandatory closure.
In Oakland, The Heart and Dagger Saloon in the Grand Lake neighborhood planned to host a “quarantina wine mixer” with special guest bartenders. The bar would be open until 11:30.
Staff writers Jim Harrington, Martha Ross, Thomas Peele and Nate Gartrell contributed to this story.
