However, the upcoming recession caused by the coronavirus crisis will hit the DC area particularly hard. Services will be hit first, due to the need for social distancing reducing the kind of human interactions the service economy is based on. Plans to travel to DC for tourism will be cancelled. The largely white-collar workforce working in Washington will be able to work from home, reducing the spread of the virus but decimating downtown businesses that these employees will no longer frequent. Restaurants and hotels will see sales plummet. Prospects for recovery will require the coronavirus to recede enough that it’s safe for people to return from teleworking and return to travelling to the capitol for tourism. Even if the number of coronavirus cases stabilizes, that may not be enough to bring back economic activity to where it was before. The only regional economic silver lining is the prospects for a surge in government spending that would stimulate the local DC economy.