How an S.F.-style don’t-leave-home edict would work

The city that never sleeps could soon be the city that shouldn’t move.

Mayor de Blasio announced Tuesday that he is on the verge of ordering city residents to “shelter in place” to combat the coronavirus that has quickly overwhelmed the area and

the nation. The stay-athome order could emerge within 48 hours.

Although the mayor did not lay out in detail what such an order would look like, it almost certainly would restrict movement within the five boroughs and limit outside trips to essential errands like grocery shopping and pharmacy visits.

If put in place, it is likely to resemble a measure enacted by leaders in the San Francisco area, where residents are under a threeweek order that prevents them from leaving their homes for anything other than essentials. The order also allows for outdoor exercise.

The order tells people to work from home unless they provide essential services such as public safety, sanitation and medical services. Pharmacies and banks will remain open. Restaurants, as is the case in New York City, are open only for takeout.

The San Francisco directive exempts the homeless but is “urging them to find shelter and government agencies to provide it.”

Italy, the epicenter of the European outbreak, has a shelter-in-place plan, but its terms are more drastic. Italy has the world’s second-oldest population after Japan.

Serbia has introduced a nationwide dusk-to-dawn curfew for all citizens and banned people older than 65 from leaving their households as part of an emergency law intended to fight the spread of coronavirus in the Balkan country.

De Blasio said he wasn’t sure if there is a difference between a quarantine and a shelter-in-place order. He said the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the city had reached 814.

The mayor called out the federal government for not doing enough to help the city.