Former Dunedin music producer Brendan Hoffman has lived in New York for more than five years and says his adopted home has changed significantly in recent weeks.
Cases of Covid 19 are spiralling upwards in the United States, with New York City the hardest hit.
As of Friday there were 50,000 cases, and 1400 people have died as a result of the corona virus in the city.
"It's very different, it's super quiet, there's no-one around."
It is kind of eerie," Hoffman said.
Brendan Hoffman is the Director of Touring for American company TMWRK, a job which saw him travelling all around the world last year, as TMWRK artists played shows from Greenland to Pakistan.
A fairly long way from running Dunedin's Volt recording studio in the 1990s, recording legendary Dunedin bands including Snapper.But he high-flying success with TMWRK was before Covid 19 shut the entertainment industry down.
"It's pretty much decimated it. Everything is done. Everything is on hold, who knows what we're going to pick up with at the end of this," he said.
However, like the New Zealand government, he says the New York State government is rolling our aid packages, but he says the American central government hasn't been quite up to speed.
"There's a bunch of really positive stuff out there for sure, but [we've got to] see how it rolls out"
"There are no interest loans and forgivable loans to help companies keep the business and employees up and running through this.
"Brendan Hoffman says TMWRK are looking into ways to keep a-float in the global entertainment industry which is facing arguably its biggest challenges ever.
