FUHGEDDABOUT CITY ‘QUARANTINE’
Gov slaps down Blaz’s talk of prepping for shelter-in-place order, sez he ‘has no interest’ in that
Mayor de Blasio appeared poised Tuesday to impose an unprecedented citywide shelter-in-place order, with 8.5 million New Yorkers confined to their homes — until Gov. Cuomo slammed the door shut on the plan.
The governor quickly closed the mayor’s 48-hour window to ponder the plan by declaring that de Blasio lacked the authority to do anything of the kind.
“Any blanket quarantine or shelter-in-place policy would require state action, and as the governor has said, there is no consideration of that for any locality at this time,” said a statement from Melissa de Rosa, secretary to the governor.
Only a short time earlier, de Blasio had suggested that his constituents across the five boroughs should brace for a stay-at-home ruling by Thursday.
“Even though a decision has not been made, by the city or by the state, I think New Yorkers should be prepared right now for the possibility of a shelter-inplace order,” de Blasio said at a City Hall briefing. “It has not happened yet, but it is definitely a possibility.”
The de Rosa statement came after the mayor’s old frenemy Cuomo had earlier dispelled reports that the nation’s largest city could be placed under quarantine.
“Rumors are part of the fear, the anxiety,” Cuomo said at his daily briefing on the coronavirus. “People spread rumors: Maybe we’re going to quarantine New York City? That is not true. … I have no interest whatsoever and no plan whatsoever to quarantine any city.”
The back and forth between Albany and City Hall came as the statewide total of infected residents continued to grow, with 1,544 positive cases confirmed, 432 new patients identified and 12 deaths. In New York City, there were 814 coronavirus cases, with 187 new ones confirmed. Seven city residents are among those killed by the virus. By Tuesday night, the number of city cases rose to 923.
De Blasio acknowledged he was unsure of the difference between quarantine and shelter-in-place order and further said any decision should involve input from
the state.
“I don’t want to be the guy who defines, for anyone, what’s the difference between ‘quarantine’ and ‘shelter in place’ because we’re still trying to learn what shelter in place could mean,” he said. “I don’t think it’s time to say, ‘This person likes this idea, this person likes that idea.’ It’s time for the city decision-makers to refine our thinking on whether we think it’s the right thing to do.”
“There is not going to be any quarantine, no one is going to lock you in your home,” Cuomo declared. “No one is going to tell you you can’t leave the city. That is not going to happen.”
De Blasio did announce that alternate-side parking regulations will not be enforced for at least a week as part of the effort to slow the coronavirus spread, although paying at parking meters was still required. The suspension of the daily parking rule was linked in part with the “shelter in place” plan, with car owners spared the effort of moving their cars six days a week.
The mayor, via a citywide mobile phone alert, asked New Yorkers to sign up for information going forward about the coronavirus.
“We want everyone who can to sign up for the proactive information,” said de Blasio. “There’s still a lot of misinformation out there.”
City residents seeking real-time info on the health crisis can text COVID to 692-692, while those seeking the same information in
Spanish can text COVIDESP to the same number.
Both Cuomo and de Blasio stressed the critical importance of increasing the number of beds in anticipation of a daunting increase in the number of COVID-19 patients.
Officials are also scrambling to increase the number of hospital beds in New York State from the current 53,000, including 3,000 intensive care unit beds.
Cuomo said that at the current rate of coronavirus spread, the state would need 55,000 to 110,000 hospital beds and as many as 37,200 ICU beds.
“That, my friends, is the problem,” he said.
The pandemic has already closed businesses across the city. Restaurants and bars were ordered to only take delivery and pickup orders starting Monday night to stop the spread of coronavirus. Gyms, casinos, nightclubs, movie theaters, small theater houses and concert venues are also all closed.
De Blasio, in one last bit of business to slow the spread of the virus, signed an executive order banning pooled rides by for-hire driving services like Uber, Lyft and Via.