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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Expert to mayors: Masking up is a ‘pillar of pandemic control’

As if mayors didn’t already have enough on their plates, now they're also having to make sure their residents know the facts about face masks. “You’re navigating schools being back in session, planning your budgets, trying to find a way to boost your local economies, and keep people separated and safe,” former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told the hundreds of city leaders gathered for the latest coaching and learning session of the COVID-19 Local Response Initiative. “Meanwhile, you’re still dealing with even more basic problems—like getting everyone to wear a mask.”

To help mayors with that challenge, Dr. Monica Gandhi of the University of California, San Francisco shared the latest research on mask wearing with those gathered for Thursday’s virtual session. Masking is “one of the major pillars of pandemic control,” she explained before offering recommendations for how city leaders can best combat myths about masks and nudge residents toward greater compliance.

DATA TRACKER

Johns Hopkins' confirmed U.S. COVID-19 cases as of 8 a.m. EDT on September 18.

TOTAL CONFIRMED CASES

6,676,410

TOTAL DEATHS

197,655

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.

NEW GOVERNANCE
COVID continues to force local governments to find new ways to govern cities.

After pressure from a local newspaper, a majority of the mayors in Florida’s Broward County agree they should open to public view the closed-door COVID-19 meetings they’ve been holding with county health officials.
In a move to save $860,000, New York City will furlough 495 city employees, including the mayor, for a week.
Mayors of California’s Anaheim, Buena Park, and Garden Grove, ask governor to issue COVID-19 guidelines that would allow theme parks to open.
Last month, Honolulu issued 44,000 pandemic-related citations and made 65 arrests, more than doubling the criminal cases handled by the District Court.

NEW PROTECTIONS
Residents and recovery remain front and center.

A bill passed unanimously by the New York City council will allow restaurants to add a 10 percent COVID-19 surcharge to diners’ bills as an economic support measure during the pandemic.
Portland, Ore., residents who have their rent raised are now eligible to have their landlords pay for part of their relocation fees.
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto says the city is working on plans to allow for Halloween trick-or-treating “in a safe way.”

GLOBAL OUTLOOK

London Mayor Sadiq Khan calls for rent freeze to prevent mass evictions.
Liverpool Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram calls on the U.K. government to deploy more COVID-19 tests.

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In her own words: Mayor Jenny Durkan

When COVID-19 hit the U.S., Seattle, almost overnight, became an epicenter of the epidemic and Mayor Jenny Durkan had to move quickly to keep her residents safe. “I think one of the most difficult things about it was there was no guidebook or playbook,” Durkan says in this video. “We saw what happened in China. We were seeing what happened in Italy, but we didn’t have any model in the United States.” One of the ways the city took an early lead in pandemic response was to set up its own testing capacity by sourcing supplies from South Korea and tapping expertise from the University of Washington. “I think that the successes we had in our country were largely the result of having strong relationships between mayors and having the base of information and connectivity to the scientists,” Durkan explains.

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: