This is what should have been in the works weeks ago - contingency plans. Waiting until the virus is here is the mistake. And I don't care if people think that's a political comment. It's accurate. Deal with it.
I can say that at least with my company who is one of the larger employers in the DM metro they have been planning for contingency plans for weeks now and I would bet this week we start to see some more work from home initiatives enacted. In nearly 17 years I've never had the need for remote access but last Monday I was told to put in a request for it. Still not sure how productive I'd be working from home because about 90% of what I do requires me to be in the office since a bulk of my work is supporting the IT hardware our employees use so unless they have an issue where they at least are still partially functional and are able to be connected to the network so I could remote in most of the stuff I do requires me to physically be in the office.
The people I really am concerned about right now are those in the service industries because a lot of those people have no work from home options and if they start shutting down bars, restaurants, stores, etc. those people probably won't get paid. Even if their place of work is still open and they have kids that now have to stay home they are going to be in a tough spot.
Really hoping that this is not a prolonged inconvenience for us all and the new cases start to level off sooner rather than later. The best we can do is just keep up with hygiene practices and social distancing to protect ourselves and hope for the best. I'm not panicked at all and kept a calm demeanor during all this as statistically living a normal life right now you aren't going to get this virus but the people who are panicked and going to extremes are disrupting our lives right now too by making your normal trips to the store more complicated when what you normally need to buy is completely wiped out. As long as the stores stay open just buy what you need and don't hoard and we'll all get through this.