Empty streets as Seattle hunkers down amid coronavirus outbreak

SEATTLE • Just after dawn on Thursday morning, a Microsoft shuttle bus idled at its regular stop in north Seattle - but no passengers were there to board.

The day went on like that: Coffee shop sales were way down. Schools were closed in one suburban area. The downtown was oddly quiet. Traffic was a breeze.

People were hunkering down.

A new reality has set in for the Seattle area, the first region in the United States where the authorities have issued sweeping recommendations that people stay home to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

"It is a weird feeling, being ground zero of this thing," said Ms Anastasia Scrimgeour, a driver for Lyft and Uber who said her income has dropped by half since a week ago, when a wave of reports of coronavirus cases began in the area. "Everyone is scared of Seattle now."

A day earlier, county officials had urged people to telecommute rather than go to work and recommended that people aged 60 or older stay in their homes.

People with medical conditions, as well as pregnant women, were also advised not to go out.

The city is hardly a ghost town, Ms Scrimgeour said, but there were fewer people out and about.

"It was so quick," she said. "Everything just happened in a few days."

In Washington state, 13 people have died of the coronavirus.

More than 60 other people have been treated for the virus in the state, leading state officials to declare an emergency.

And in pockets all around Seattle, people were heeding the advice of officials and staying in.

Microsoft, Amazon and many other top employers told their employees to work from home.

The South Lake Union area, where thousands of tech workers fill the streets, was mostly empty. Parking spaces, usually all but impossible to find on a weekday, were wide open.

"You are starting to feel people are avoiding public areas," said Ms Angelica Salazar, who took her daughter to a library story time. Story time, usually packed, was not. "Life still has to go on," Ms Salazar said.

Ms Michelle Rose, who works the front desk at a hotel west of the city, said she had seen store shelves emptied. "People are staying home, freaking out," she said. "We've got a whole folder for it - people who are cancelling their reservations."

Mr Jason Foafoa, a finish carpenter, proceeded to work as usual at a 40-storey apartment building, its upper floors still skeletal as the framing and walls go up.

There was a change, though, he said. Seattle's increasingly snarled traffic has all but disappeared.

"It's weird," he added.

Two women walked down a pavement carrying big computer monitors in their arms. They were heading home to work, as their employer has suggested, until at least the end of the month.

Their office of about 200 people was down to only a few, some of them packing up their stuff.

At Cascade Coffee Works, located on the ground floor of one of Amazon's buildings and on a typical weekday full of Amazon workers, the lines had vanished.

"Sales are down 50 per cent today," said Mr Zach Cook, 27, head roaster at Seattle Coffee Works, which has four locations in the city, including Cascade Coffee.

He noted that the company's other cafes are seeing a slowdown in business. "But it's nothing drastic like this," he said.

Ms Kim Kennedy, 26, who works as an aide in a physical therapy clinic in Seattle, had her work hours cut two weeks ago, from 36 to 28, as scheduled patients cancelled their appointments.

At one public library, most tables were occupied but not full.

Some people stayed away, while others came in search of Internet access to telecommute or for public health information, said Mr Darth Nielsen, a regional manager.

"People still want connection. People still want to go out," he said.

NYTIMES