Coronavirus, on the home front: How Utahns in self-isolation are working, dancing and making music

I’m continuing to write about the coronavirus outbreak — it’s really the only story in our lives these days — but I’ve sort of landed into a specific subset of virus-related stories: How we, all of us, are dealing with being stuck at home in self-isolation.

Three stories I wrote in the last week for The Salt Lake Tribune cover this aspect of coronavirus life:

• I talked, and emailed, with Utahns about how they’ve adapted to working from home offices, sharing table space with their children, and having pets for coworkers.

• I wrote about a new music video, “Dance Song (for the End of the World),” by the L.A. retro-swing band Lizzy & the Triggermen, that featured 67 swing dancers from 15 countries — including a couple from Salt Lake City doing the Lindy Hop — all performing from self-isolation.

• Also performing from self-isolation, 35 members of the Utah Symphony collaborated on a rendition of the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, for a video that went online this week. (Early in the week, I wrote about how Utah Symphony | Utah Opera has furloughed all 85 of the symphony’s musicians.)

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Here’s what else I’ve been working on for The Salt Lake Tribune related to the coronavirus:

• My colleague, Nate Carlisle, and I tag-teamed on Friday’s briefing from the state of Utah, for two stories: One about a “travel declaration” to get people visiting Utah to provide data to the Utah Department of Health; the other about how the Salt Lake County Health Department is crunching data about the outbreak.

• To wear a mask or not? I asked an expert about what good a cloth mask does. The general feeling among medical professionals is that it’s better than nothing — but people should be aware of the limitations. (The photos came from a donation drive for medical equipment, which I mentioned in the Tribune’s “How You Can Help” blog.)

• Salt Lake County made a list of types of businesses considered “essential” during the pandemic, and a list of businesses that must close down. I tried to answer the question: What about those in the middle?

Be sure to read all of The Salt Lake Tribune’s coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. My colleagues are doing amazing work during all this, and we’re all doing it from home.