Local leaders are delivering America's communities through this crisis. That's why Bloomberg Philanthropies created the City Hall COVID-19 Update, to elevate the critical information city leaders need to respond to and recover from the challenges at hand.

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How Detroit pulled off a COVID memorial like no other

Detroit has lost more than 1,500 residents to COVID-19. While that toll continues to be hard for many people to process, residents took a step toward healing this week with a memorial service unlike any other. On an island of parkland in the Detroit River called Belle Isle, the city stationed 907 billboard-sized photos of those lost to COVID. Carloads of mourners—organized in 15 processions—then drove past the two-plus miles of photos. There were two reasons for this memorial, explained Detroit’s Director of Arts, Culture & Entrepreneurship, Rochelle Riley. “One was to provide some closure and some peace…. The other is to make sure people understand how real this pandemic is. You cannot drive around an island and look at 900 faces…and not understand that these are human beings who are being snatched away from us.”

DATA TRACKER

Johns Hopkins' confirmed U.S. COVID-19 cases as of 8 a.m. EDT on September 4.

TOTAL CONFIRMED CASES

6,151,101

186,806TOTAL DEATHS

186,806

Find more up-to-date case counts and other critical information from the Johns Hopkins University's situation report and interactive map.

CITY ACTIONS

A roundup of responses to the coronavirus crisis. See the
COVID-19: Local Action Tracker for more.

DEVASTATED BUDGETS
The pandemic continues to force cities to make difficult fiscal decisions.

Los Angeles declares a state of financial emergency and furloughs 15,000 city employees. The furloughs, which account for 10 percent of employees’ annual income, begin in October.
The mayors of Texas’ most populous cities, including Austin, El Paso, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Houston, express concern about balancing city budgets for years to come.

EXTENDING SUPPORTS
As the virus continues to take its toll on businesses and families, cities take actions to extend successful programs of support.

San Jose, Calif., expands its “Al Fresco” initiative, allowing casinos to move gambling outside into their parking lots.
Detroit extends its COVID-19 Food Delivery program developed by the city’s innovation team through the end of the year.

NEW APPROACHES
Mayors are taking new approaches to slow the spread of COVID and to keep residents safe.

Nashville, Tenn., Mayor John Cooper wants to deputize city employees to help enforce COVID-19 related health mandates.
Houston will conduct an antibody testing campaign to better understand how many people in the city have had COVID-19. Beginning next week, teams from the health department, fire department, and paramedics will visit randomly selected homes and ask residents to answer survey questions and give blood samples.

GLOBAL OUTLOOK

The first batch of 128,000 tests in Hong Kong's mass screening program turned up only two previously unknown COVID-19 cases.
Bucharest, Romania, Mayor Gabriela Firea announces the city will give 1,000 euros to recovered COVID-19 patients who donate plasma.

In his own words: Mayor Sylvester Turner

At a time when too many residents are uncertain how they’ll meet their next rent or mortgage payment, city leaders are stepping up. In Houston that help is coming in the form of a $20-million rental assistance program set up by Mayor Sylvester Turner. “The agreement that we’ve worked out with the landlords in the city of Houston, is that if one tenant in that—let’s say complex—receives the rental assistance, then the landlord is agreeing not to evict any tenant at that complex,” Sylvester explains in this video. In this way, the fund benefits many more residents than it aids directly. “We’ve faced a lot in the city of Houston since I’ve been mayor, but with the support of our partners, and specifically Bloomberg, I believe we are building a city that will be stronger, more resilient, and more sustainable for years to come.”

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES

Find more COVID-19 resources for city leaders here. Please suggest new resources to include here.

RESOURCES

COVID-19 Crisis Leadership Essentials for Mayors (Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative and Johns Hopkins University)
Answers to Mayors' Top Questions (Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative and Johns Hopkins University)
COVID-19 Management Metrics for Cities (Johns Hopkins University) Access webinars on using data and this metric set to tackle COVID in your community.
See how social distancing measures may have influenced trends in COVID-19 cases and deaths in every state. (Johns Hopkins University)
Streets for Pandemic Response and Recovery (NACTO)
COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Programs in Ten Localities (Local Housing Solutions)
Free course on contact tracing (Johns Hopkins University)
Partnership for Healthy Cities COVID-19 Response Center (Bloomberg Philanthropies)
Transportation Response Center (NACTO)

CDC'S LATEST GUIDANCE FOR: