Are going to be watching closely and monitoring our parks, were going to be monitoring various locations where we know large groups of people gather. And i hope that we wont be forced to close any parks or make any adjustments because people are not following the order. San Francisco Mayor london breed talking about the concern that nice weather this weekend will bring people outside, likely overcrowding, as the city and other locations crack down on access to open space. Oaklands mayor wants to create more room for people to get outside and spread out a bit. Good evening, im dan ashley. Im kristen zhse, thank you for joining us. Some neighborhood streets in oakland are nearly empty. Thats given mayor libby shaft an idea. She said closing the streets would allow residents to walk, jog and bike while practicing social distancing at the same time. Abc 7 anchor eric thomas joins us from oakland with the story. Eric . Reporter and look right here at 42nd and broadway, this cross walk, crews will block this off and three other intersections like it in the city tomorrow as part of mayor libby shafts operation open streets. She wants people to get out and exercise and still maintain a safe distance from each other. Closures are set to start tomorrow on 42nd street between broadway and adeline and two other spots. West street from west grand to 14th street and east oakland, arthur street from havens court boulevard to 78th avenue, then doglegging along plymouth street from 78th to 104th avenue. The mayor says it is to get people who have been sheltering in place for the past few weeks some fresh air and exercise. We want oaklanders to recreate in a socially distanced manner, physically distanced manner. Reporter on the surface, this seems to run counter to what Health Officials are telling us. Stay indoors, unless you need to go out to shop or for an emergency. But shaft says closing the streets to all but local automobile traffic will allow people to walk, run and ride in the road itself, not just on the sidewalk. And the extra room will allow people to keep the recommended 6 foot safe distance from each other. By opening up our streets to bikes, joggers, pedestrians, we are giving oaklanders more room to spread out safely. Reporter if the Pilot Project is successful, the city plans to expand the program to nearly 74 miles of residential streets. Cyclists we talked with were on board. I think it is a great idea. Anything to get people on bicycles is a good idea. I think the idea of open streets in general is a fantastic one. In this day and age, i think the idea that we can help do social distancing as well makes it even better. Reporter shaft says less ac and fewer headaches for hospitals that are still preparing for a potential surge in covid19 cases. It is called operation slow street, sorry i misspoke earlier. And we checked in with the Alameda County health department. Theyre the ones who put out the shelter in place order to see how they feel about having people out again, even with the reported safe distance. We have not heard back from them yet. Again, this will be 74 miles eventually of residential streets, not major thorough fares like broadway, but like 42nd from here to adeline. More on that coming up for you at 6 00. Live in oakland, eric thomas, abc 7 news. Great, thank you so much. Well see you then. If youre considering going to a park for easter weekend, you might want to rethink the plans. San mateo county and east Bay Regional Parks are among those places that announced closures or restrictions on parking to prevent overcrowding. Thousands of warning citations have been handed out in marin county to drivers because people continue to visit parks and other recreation areas. Despite the shelter at home order. The Sheriffs Office is reminding people that driving to parks or in open space is considered nonessential travel during this shelter in place order. No Parking Zones have been marked around these areas. The Sheriffs Office says if you need to get out, do it near your own home. Dont get in the car and drive to a park. South bay parks are also making changes. Abc 7 News Community journalist Dustin Dorsey breaks down the temperature measures that residents will need to know about. Reporter the views of mission peak normally give people a much needed escape from the busy bay area lifestyle, but this weekend may not be that time to take in the scenery. Really need folks to stay home, stay safe, so we have closed some parking areas and staging areas temporarily for easter. Help maintain safety. It is about safety to the public and safety of employees. Reporter east Bay Regional Park District already announced closures to many parking lots and staging areas, but are expanding that ahead of this busy weekend. In total, ten regional parks will now see new law and staging closures on april 11th and 12th. The district is discouraging the public from visiting the parks, but the remain open and access footbaible if you ta the location. Changes are coming here at the san jose regional parks. Theyll be closed to keep people away on east eer weekend. Were trying to prevent people from gathering in groups. These areas can get crowded. We have observed and received reports regarding noncompliance with county orders in certain parks and people gathering. So we just want to be really proactive and make sure that people are following the county orders. Reporter the city will do this by closing the sease ining regional parks. This means no access by car or by foot throughout the entirety of easter weekend. Neighborhood parks in san jose will remain open with public space restrictions, such as closed dog parks and sports deals. Temporary measures could turn to indefinite if social distancing doesnt continue. If groups gatherings, overcrowding, any kind of noncompliance with the county order is seen at parks, it could lead to the closure of other parks. Reporter Dustin Dorsey, abc 7 news. 68 residents and two Staff Members at San Franciscos largest homeless shelter have tested positive for coronavirus. The shelter is msc south at 5th and bryant streets. People who havent been tested positive are being moved to hotels now. The department of Public Health staff will provide medical treatment. This outbreak does not mean there is significantly greater risk to the general public. However, it is a very serious matter. San francisco supervisor matt haney calls the citys acts an utter failure. He asked why so many people have been in the shelter and why they didnt have separation where they sleep and why they dont have masks. Mayor london breed talked about another alarming and disturbing byproduct of the coronavirus pandemic. She says local Resource Centers have seen an uptick in calls about Domestic Violence. We know that sadly some people who are sheltering at home may not be in safe environments. We know that Domestic Violence doesnt stop because of a pandemic. For those who cannot call, mayor breed today said people n now text 911 about dangerous situations. The mayor says the city has come up with 20 new Housing Units to be made available to people needing to flee abusive situations. Some positive news today from the Governors Coronavirus Task force. The states stay at home order and social distancing measure is working. State Health Secretary mark galley showed us where hospitalizations stand right now. We were worried we were going to see something that got close to 700,000 hospitalizations across the state. We see that we are holding on to the bottom part of the model. Thats sort of the better case scenario. What we had always hoped for. This is a point of pride for californians that we have done so well. He and the governor warned people to keep social distancing and stay at home or the numbers could radically change. Governor newsom also announced a partnership with fema to provide meals, deliver them to seniors. And said the state is monitoring 191 Nursing Homes with active coronavirus cases. The ranks of the unemployed keep growing, there is a Bay Area Company that is hiring. Abc 7 report er david louieplai an Assembly Line to manufacture covid19 test kits. In a few days they will launch a new line to make badly needed ventilators. They have demanded Online Services for years to produce robotics, and devices for dna analysis. The pandemic is the latest challenge. What is complicated is doing it in high volume and, you know, mass production. And so but we have i have very Skilled Engineering team who have worked at abbott and ge, medical and these places, so they have a lot of experience. Reporter steritek is testing to see if shields can be sterilized and reused. For reuse of the masks, with ev done some tests and on both the masks and the face shields. We are sending some samples back to stanford hospital for them to test to see if the face shields have degraded and one, two, three, four, five times the normal sterilization. Reporter the city has an ecosystem of 900 local suppliers to meet the need for parts without interruption. It is a strategy that fremonts city leaders envisioned years ago and it has paid off. We are so fortunate to be able to respond to the essential need and critical demand we see now in our community and we hope to provide more in the ongoing time period to help solve this situation. Reporter fremont is stepping up to fight covid19, david louie, abc 7 news. On the subject of fighting covid19, apple and google are joining forces to use Smartphone Technology to contain covid19. The two Silicon Valley giants plan to add software to phones. That would make it easier to use Bluetooth Wireless Technology to track people who may have been infected by the coronavirus carriers. Engineers hope to help governments deliver apps for socalled contact tracing. Similar apps have been used in places like china and singapore. Apple and google say user privacy and security are built into the design. The app is due out next month. On the peninsula, talk about a topsyturvy world. San mateo is dismissing parking tickets and in some cases sending drivers refunds. The new policy applies to 1200 parking tickets issued over the last three weeks. Officials say. The city is modifying its Parking Enforcement standards due to the coronavirus pandemic and the countys shelter in place order. San mateo county set up a pet food bank for pet owners in need. Those who are able can pick up pet food on fridays between 11 00 a. M. And 1 00 p. M. At pick of the litter on chula vista avenue in burling gate. You can arrange a delivery, they can do that for you too. Stimulus checks for small businesses, the irs releases a new simple tax form to make sure americans get theirs. That story is next. There may be one Silver Lining to sheltering in place. Carmageddon may not happen on whaso lets do the rightver chanthing, today. Ow. Lets stay at home. Lets wash up. Lets always keep our distance please, six feet apart at least. Lets look after ourselves, as well as others. It will all be worth it. We can all do our part. So those on the front line can do their part. And when this is over, we will all, continue, to thrive. Cal trans warned of carmageddon in San Francisco, but with the reduction in traffic because of the shelter in place order, workers will now get an early start on replacing 800 feet of bridge deck on highway 101 near interstate 280. Here is abc 7 News Reporter wayne freedman. Reporter in the same spirit of what goes up must come down, here is another. What once was new does become old and if it belongs to cal trans, they try to make it new again. Which brings us to the overpass in San Francisco. A quarter of a million cars drive through every day, they have taken their toll. Here is martin of cal trans. Seven decades serving the public. Reporter cal trans had planned 18 days for the 37 million project beginning as ea as april 25th. If you look underneath, you see some of the work has already begun. The main job of replacing 800 feet of deck will require shutdowns, traffic shifting, delays and no doubt automotive spillage into neighborhoods like san bruno avenue, which is already congested. Locals did not express too much concern when they first learned about the project. We have a crumbling infrastructure here. And we all understand improvements need to be made. It is the timeliness of it is going to hurt. And there is nothing we can do about it, right . Reporter even cal trans admits this work is going to be inconvenient. But by moving the schedule up to a time when we have roughly 50 of the traffic, they say it wont be as bad as it would have been. We believe we can cut the time and we can get it done before people come back. Reporter which will mean working 24 hours until the work finishes, just follow the detours and dont speed, cal trans says. Better to do the job now than later this summer when if were lucky well see our roads return ngtoheirow blissful crawl. In San Francisco, wayne freedman, abc 7 news. Millions of americans will be getting system plus checks to get,000 t through the tough eco times. Thats right. Lets bring in Michael Finney for more on those checks. Michael . Yeah, this is really important and really good news for many, many people. The irs has set up a brandnew website for those who normally dont file an irs tax return. This is important, let me tell you why, the irs uses the tax return information to identify those who are entitled to the payments. The new website is free to use and allows those who dont file to give their information and receive a direct deposit payment. Now, i posted all the information you need, on abc7news. Com. Tonight, a warning about those payments. It could be seized by debt collectors. Anyone who is eligible to receive a check and faces a collection effort could be targeted. Now, two senators, one a democrat, one a republican, have sent a letter to the treasury secretary urging the government to ban those types of collections. The senators call the payments a lifeline. Two more Insurance Companies plan to refund a portion of their premiums to policy holders. State farm says it will return up to 2 million, progressive 1 billion. This follows consumer advocates demanding the return of premiums saying the companies are making an unfair windfall profit because so few miles are being driven these days. About half a Dozen Companies are rebating between 15 and 25 of their premiums for 1 to 2 months. You may remember two weeks ago there was a call by consumer advocates to get these rebates and there was very little reaction, but then a couple of Insurance Companies came out and all rolling over. Everybody should be getting a nice surprise. All right, good deal. Thanks, michael. Hope the sun is out where you are. The weekend looks very promising indeed. Abc 7 ne the sun is out and it looks like a nice easter weekend shaping up lets see if that will be the way the whole weekend, lets check in with meteorologist sandhya patel. It will be absolutely beautiful. I would not have it any other way, dan and kristen. As you look at a live picture now, from our exploratory camera, nothing but blue skies. It is 59 in San Francisco right now. Low 60s from oakland to red wood city. 65 in san jose. 57 in half moon bay. Todays high temperatures anywhere from the upper 50s to the low 70s and the warmest spots. From our kgo roof camera, breezy along embarcadero. Beautiful day indeed. 67 in santa rosa. 70 in fairfield. 63 in livermore. Live doppler 7, passing clouds is all were seeing to our south. You know that area of low pressure that brought a couple of showers to the south bay early this morning . Long gone. It is in Southern California where theyre still getting the rain, but it is going to be pushing out of here. You can see that clearing as we look at the state wide picture. From san jose camera, mix of sun and clouds now, look at the forecast, fog and low clouds expand overnight tonight. Sunny and warmer for easter weekend. That warming trend will carry us into next week. Your 12 hour planner for easter, sunday will include morning fog, temperatures in the 50s at around 9 00 a. M. Brighter skies by noon time. Those temperatures coming up into the low 60s to mid70s for the afternoon hours. So really looking lovely. Hopefully the kids will have a hopping good time if youre doing egg hunts in your backyard. And cooler and breezy in the evening hours. Hour by hour forecast showing you the expansion of the marine layer during the overnight hours. 7 00 a. M. It is going to start off gray. And youll notice the fog pulls back to the coast, but just sits there, pretty typical around this time of year. Rest of you will be looking at sun for the afternoon hours going into the evening that fog will push back in again. 40s, 50s, gray start for all of the bay area. In the afternoon, brightening it up, inland areas in the low 70s, a lot like today. 71 in concord. San francisco 62. Half moon bay, 59 degrees. That is where the fog will be hanging around most of the afternoon. And the seven day forecast does feature beautiful weather for your easter weekend. Temperatures very similar to tomorrow. On easter, a bump up, low 60s to mid70s. Warming carries over to next week, look at tuesday and wednesday. Were talking almost late spring, early summerlike weather. Mid60s to low 80s on tuesday. And wednesday youll be seeing the warmth and feeling the warmth as well. If you do step out for a little bit of fresh air. Chance of showers next friday. Lovely. Thanks. Too nice. I dont know if we can take it. All right. Heart felt conversation between steph curry and this is a really special story. Yes, steph curry delivered a special message earlier this week to the staff at oakland Summit Medical center. What we do is as far as all that, more people knows about what goes on in your world, especially in a pandemic like this, so thank you to you, the whole staff, everybody, we are praying for you. Thinking about you guys, we just thank you personally. Thank you. It means a lot. Well, i meant every word of it. I for how much you inspired me throughout the years. Especially like when i first started my job here. And it is like really steep learning curve, two people youre trying to make sure they dont die all shift. And then just had a lot of tough stuff going on with family. A lot of times i did want to just quit and give up and do something easier. Thats when i first started wear the jersey and it was, like, just my way of kind of, you know, gathering me strength, reminding myself we got this. And i can do it and also kind of lead with love and lead with joy the way you do and embrace my inner child and bring, like, love and joy and fun to the workplace even though it is a tough place to be. So from the bottom of my heart, youve made a big difference in my life and i appreciate you for that. The nurse he was talking to was shelby delany, who calls steph her hero in a facebook post. Remarkable. You notice her head covering too. Isnt that a warriors pattern . It sure is. Just for the occasion. World news tonight is next. We appreciate your time. For all of us here, thank you for joining us tonight. Hope you can join us again tonight at 6 00. Well see you then. Mrs. Walker. Michael vasquez come over here. Ive heard such good things about you, your company. Well, i wouldnt have done any of it without you. Without this place. This is for you. Michael, you didnt have to. And, were going to need some help with the rest. Youve worked so hard to achieve so much. Perhaps its time to partner with someone who knows you and your business well enough to understand what your wealth is really for. Tonight, as america endures its deadliest week from the virus, the news tonight signs the curve may be flattening in new york city. Even with another 777 deaths in 24 hours. And what President Trump revealed this afternoon. The death toll in the u. S. Now surpassing 18,000. In new york, even with yet another 24hour staggering toll, Governor Cuomo tonight cautious but saying the numbers do appear to be reaching a plateau, and his warning about what could change this. The rate of hospitalizations in new york inching down. We have reported on the toll on africanamericans. In new york city, the alarming toll on the latino community. And tonight, pregnancy and the virus. Inside a Maternity Ward where an expectant mother tested positive. The emergency csection. We are across the country tonight