First day "at" work

Today was my first day "at" the new Current Paying Gig. (An outfit called Alegeus, of which you probably haven't heard. Even though we manage about 40% of all the Flexible Spending Accounts and Health Savings Accounts in the US, all the websites and mobile apps use the client company's branding rather than ours.)

I put "at" in quotes because, well, coronavirus. The company is in total work-from-home mode, so the onboarding workshop was being done via videoconference. Makes for an easy commute, at least.

Local COVID-19 updates

As of 4PM this afternoon, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is reporting eight more deaths from COVID-19 (for a total of 56 to date), 797 new cases (for a total of 5752) and 3,727 more persons tested (for a total of 42793).

In his press conference today, Governor Baker said that the state was starting to get ventilators and other needed supplies from the feds:

As Massachusetts hospitals brace for an expected surge of coronavirus patients in the next three weeks, Governor Charlie Baker said the federal government had approved the state’s request for at least 1,000 ventilators, crucial pieces of lifesaving medical equipment in the fight against the growing pandemic.

[ ... ]

The badly needed influx came as the state entered its second week under a stay-at-home advisory that has emptied busy highways and turned the typical workday rush into an eerie calm. A video on Twitter showed an empty Green Line train rolling past an empty platform in mid-morning, and the usually packed Alewife MBTA parking garage was 4 percent full.

Baker said models show that a surge in coronavirus cases is expected to arrive sometime between April 7 and April 17. The state is preparing for it by securing ventilators, increasing bed space, obtaining personal protective equipment, and increasing medical personnel, he said.

The current order closing all non-essential businesses is set to expire on April 7, but Baker is expected to announce tomorrow whether or not he'll extend that order. (I'm going to go way out on a limb here and assume he will.)

Still no new updates from the town of Acton.