Amid coronavirus lockdown, Californian tour guide starts virtual tours

Amid the unprecedented coronavirus outbreak, a Californian tour guide started his virtual tour as the ‘stay-at-home’ order has crippled tourism. According to an international media outlet, Adam Duford, the guide, has been forced to park his open-top buses and try a new approach to reach those locked in their homes. The virtual tour guide began his tour with a phone in one hand and a notebook in the other.

While speaking to an international media outlet, Duford said that without people, there is absolutely no revenue to come in, so his strategy was to go into hibernation and be creative and productive and try to think positive. While giving the tour, he reportedly narrated the city’s development from the arrival of the Spanish through the construction of the pier which is visited by millions of people every year. 

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Currently, California has more than 2,200 confirmed coronavirus cases and the deadly virus has claimed more than 42 deaths in the state. With the closure of beaches and parks, the state’s tourism sector has been affected badly. Last week, the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, issued a ‘mandatory’ statewide stay-at-home order in a bid to contain the spread of deadly disease. 

The authorities have reportedly ordered bars, nightclubs, theatres, gyms and convention centres to be shut amid coronavirus pandemic. According to health experts, the goal is to encourage ‘social distancing’ in a bid to slow the spread of the disease and keep health systems from being overwhelmed. Newsom reportedly said that he hopes people will voluntarily obey the order to stay at home if possible. 

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$150 million for homeless

California also announced the provision of $150 million for local emergency homelessness actions. Newsom, in a Facebook Live, said that he has directed the first allocation of the $500 million in emergency funding recently authorized by the Legislature for COVID-19 related activities. The California Governor signed an executive order providing flexibility to local governments to spend their emergency homelessness funding on immediate solutions devised to combat COVID-19 and its impacts on the homeless population. 

For the first funding allocation, the state will provide $100 million directly to local governments, for shelter support and emergency housing to address COVID-19 among the homeless population. The other $50 million will be provided to purchase travel trailers and lease rooms in hotels, motels, and other facilities in partnership with counties and cities to provide immediate isolation placements throughout the state for homeless individuals. 

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