CUO-RONA CLEANER
Gov unveils sanitizer made by N.Y. inmates Port Authority big infected as virus cases grow
New York is going into the hand sanitizer business amid a surge in demand fueled by coronavirus fears — and state prisoners are the ones on the production line.
Gov. Cuomo hawked the new product Monday during an Albany press conference/ infomercial during which he bragged about the germ killer’s superior alcohol content and its appealing floral bouquet.
“This is a superior product to products now on the market,” Cuomo said in just one take, explaining the state’s brand is 75% alcohol and exceeds health experts’ recommendations to use sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol.
“It comes in a variety of sizes,” the spokesgovernor said, holding the green bottle aloft. “It has a very nice, floral bouquet. A little, I detect, of lilac, hydrangea, tulips — what does it smell like to you?” he asked officials onstage with him.
Corcraft, a company that employs state prisoners and pays them extremely low wages, is making the sanitizer, Cuomo said. The state has the capacity to produce 100,000 gallons of the stuff per week, he added.
The sanitizer salvo is the latest strike at the panic-inducing virus sweeping the city and the state, and the price gouging that accompanies it.
The take-charge measure was just one development in a dizzying day of disease control that saw the virus infect a city EMT, the Port Authority’s top executive and a growing number of victims from Brooklyn to New Rochelle.
Even Mayor de Blasio came close to using the dreaded Q-word, suggesting the five boroughs could be quarantined and some public schools might be temporarily closed over the coronavirus outbreak after three more people, including a 7-year-old girl from the Bronx, tested positive for the fast-spreading disease. And he conceded the outbreak will keep him off the campaign trail as a surrogate for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). “I don’t have any plans to go out of state anytime soon,” he told NY1 Monday night.
Meanwhile, students at Fordham University were sent home Monday and classes given online after an undergraduate commuter student exhibited symptoms. Face-toface classes were also suspended for Tuesday; on Wednesday, faculty will teach
their classes online or electronically. New York University also announced it will move to “remote instruction” beginning Wednesday amid coronavirus concerns.
City officials said 21 cases have been confirmed. The state’s total of known positive coronavirus cases is over 140.
De Blasio admitted on CNN Monday that access to the city could be shut down to stop the spread of coronavirus but stressed the virus doesn’t easily transmit, and the prospect of a total quarantine was distant.
“It’s a possibility, but I do think people are getting a little ahead of ourselves and we should be careful,” de Blasio said.
De Blasio was responding to comments from the head of the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who said on “Fox News Sunday” he doubts the U.S. would have to order “draconian” shutdowns like those put in place in parts of Italy but that “anything is possible.”
“With all due respect to Italy, we try not to get to that level,” de Blasio said. “We try to be more pinpoint in our response.”
De Blasio said there is a “high bar” for closing all the city’s public schools, given students’ and parents’ reliance on them, including for meals.
“The vast majority of parents I’ve spoken to over the years in any crisis don’t want to see the schools close. Of course safety first, but they depend on the schools, they’re a safe place for their kids,” he said on CNN. “I don’t want to see mass closures.”
De Blasio urged commuters to avoid crowded buses and subway cars.
“Is he out of his mind?” said commuter Delareen Kennedy, an advertising traffic coordinator. “How can we get around if we can’t take the subway? I have a car, but I can’t take it to work every day. It’s parked at my house.”
High school student Angelica Medina, 14, said the subway could be an underground incubator.
“I’ll take an Uber, or I’ll have my mother drive me,” she said.
Officials across the city and state sounded the alarm, even as doctors cautioned against fear and misinformation.
The Legal Aid Society called on the city’s Board of Correction to develop a plan to protect incarcerated people from the virus.
“People confined in jails and prisons during outbreaks of infectious disease are particularly vulnerable not only because of the physical environment, including poor ventilation and close proximity, but also because of the profound constraints on self-help imposed by incarceration,” the group said in a statement.
“Unlike people in a free society, incarcerated people have no access to water or soap for handwashing, or capacity to seek physical distance, except with the overt assistance of their jailers.”
The legal group also condemned Cuomo for “exploiting” inmates who are making the hand sanitizer.
Meanwhile, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency Monday to help the state address the spread of the new coronavirus.
The designation came on a day when five more cases were identified, bringing New Jersey’s total to 11.