In an Attempt to Help Struggling Restaurants, Cities Regulate Food Delivery Apps

The Japanese government is embracing the idea of "workation" trips for employees across industries as a means to "help the travel industry and keep the economy ticking" as the country moves forward in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Discounts for various travel resources have encouraged 4.2 million people to try out the idea which has been made even more feasible due to the widespread adoption of remote teleworking.

Almost half of U.S. states guarantee citizens’ rights to petition for ballot measures, but the coronavirus made gathering signatures in person infeasible. Massachusetts courts allowed electronic signatures, but other states have not approved virtual citizen initiative campaigns. Ballot initiatives allow citizens to advance solutions and enact structural changes without relying on support from elected officials. MA groups used DocuSign to gather 30,000 signatures to get a proposal for ranked choice voting on the ballot. Not all MA groups were able to quickly or successfully pivot to the e-signature process.

New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham was quick to start implementing measures to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, prior to the state reporting any cases. Although it's yet to be seen what the long term impact will be, her use of "utilizing post-9/11 emergency authorizations to stem the pandemic in the absence of federal directives" such as issuing a stay-at-home order and waiving red tape that prevented people from accessing unemployment benefits and food stamps, have so far received recognition as possibly slowing the spread.

The Covid-19 pandemic has increased interest in and use of alternative voting methods in Florida. Among Democrats in the 2020 primary, where most of the primary action took place, voting by mail was up 33% from 2016 and early voting at regional sites was up 20%, while in-person voting on primary day was down about 25%. Offering voting alternatives is not a panacea, there are some drawbacks including a greater percentage of rejected ballots among certain demographic groups, however it can help ease concerns among voters about voting in person during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Virginia’s VRA protects voters from suppression, discrimination, and intimidation and has effectively stopped racial gerrymandering and intimidation. Its pro-voting measures include requiring materials in multiple languages, the provision of accessibility accommodations, and requiring public review of any local level voting changes. The legislation also creates a pathway for Virginians to bring civil lawsuits if a procedure negatively impacts economically disadvantaged communities or communities of color.

Denmark has one of the highest COVID-19 vaccination rates in part because decisions around the distribution campaign was centrally organized. All doses start at the national institute for epidemic control and are sent to the country’s five healthcare regions, where they were prioritized to hospital workers and residents and employees of nursing homes. Special identification numbers in an online system helps notify residents of their vaccine appointment date. The country also made their own decision about how many vaccines they can get from a single vial, increasing it from five to seven.

Both Finland and Norway have successfully kept COVID-19 cases at a minimum without fully implementing lockdowns within their countries thanks to a united government, closed borders, and mandatory quarantines. The strategy has also helped keep the economy intact compared to other countries which implemented "draconian" restrictions.

Despite a nationwide months-long coronavirus lockdown in Norway, the economy was able to remain stable due to a "decades-long effort to create an equitable economy" that helped the government to enact a package that provided businesses and self-employed individuals' tax relief and deferrals. Although Norwegians pay roughly the same amount of taxes that Americans do, their taxes largely pay for social welfare programs which include unemployment benefits, retirement pay, and health care coverage. This "national ethos of economic equity" is what helped the country to navigate the pandemic.

In both New York City and Miami, hotels are converting their rooms and spaces into longterm housing for healthcare providers or those experiencing homelessness, as well as office spaces and boardrooms, to overcome financial deficits brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. The rooms are paid for by state and county funds or by businesses whose buildings remain closed.

South Korea's economic growth is one of the few that have not stagnated or declined during the coronavirus pandemic. Although much of this is due to how effectively the country handled containment protocols from the start, the overall fiscal response – which included encouraging residents to reinvest government payouts in local businesses – also played a significant role. In one province, this included using non-cash payments "that could only be spent in shops inside the region, rather than as cash that could be hoarded."