Triad coronavirus daily round-up: Thursday, March 19

Richard Burr’s bad day

I realize we came out with an issue just this morning, but the news cycle has moved on considerably since then. I’m committing to posting a round-up of the day’s local news to keep everybody up to date. And today has been… eventful.

• Evictions in Guilford and Forsyth counties were halted, but the ones already in the pipeline were on the verge of being executed. But today, a new order by North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Cheri Beasley on Thursday, gives state sheriffs’ offices the authority to “stand down” and put a halt to all pending writs of possession and evictions until April 17.
• Guilford County recorded its third case of COVID-19. The patient had traveled to New York in March and experienced symptoms upon their return. Forsyth County remains at two cases as of 7 p.m.
• The Guilford County Commission will hold its regularly scheduled meeting tonight, the Rhino Times reports. But members of the media and the public will not be allowed to attend — though the meeting will be televised and live-streamed.
• NPR released a recording of Sen. Richard Burr speaking to the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, DC, on Feb. 27, warning them of the extreme severity of the virus, comparing it to the 1918 Spanish Flu outbreak. Earlier that day, President Trump had claimed that the virus would “disappear,” “like a miracle.”
• Later today, ProPublica published an investigative report that found Sen. Burr had liquidated $1.56 million in investments in 29 transactions on Feb. 13, a week before the stock market tanked.