Gov, Blaz still split on lockdown
The city’s rapidly rising coronavirus toll more than doubled to 1,871 confirmed cases and an 11th person has died from the respiratory illness, Mayor de Blasio said Wednesday.
“These numbers are really growing rapidly,” Hizzoner said on NY1. “That’s a very, very sobering number.”
The update came as the mayor and Gov. Cuomo locked horns on a possible shelter-inplace order for the Big Apple. The mayor has voiced support for a measure along the lines of San Francisco’s rule requiring residents to stay at home except for food and emergencies, a move Cuomo has opposed.
“It was a very good conversation. We’re going to be continuing the conversation over the next 24 hours,” the mayor said. “The governor understandably is trying to think about the entire state and any impact on the whole state.”
De Blasio said in the morning he’s “almost there” in terms of his thinking on calling for an order. “We have a little bit more we have to make sense of — how we’re going to get people food and medicine — but I have to say it has to be considered seriously starting today,” Hizzoner said on NBC.
However, Cuomo has dismissed the idea since de Blasio started airing it Tuesday, when the city’s number of confirmed cases stood at 923 confirmed cases and 10 deaths.
“We talked about the options that we have,” the governor said on CNN Wednesday evening. “I am not in favor of quarantining a city. I am not in favor of imprisoning people. But obviously everybody wants the same thing: reduce the density.”
He added that he believes the term “shelter in place” is “a little deceptive.”
“It sounds like you are imprisoned in your home, but that’s not actually what it is,” Cuomo added. “You can go to the doctor, you can go to the store, you can go outside for exercise.”
The governor also upped the ante in his back-and-forth with the mayor by issuing an order requiring cities to get state Health Department approval for any emergency measures.
Cuomo, joined by officials in New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, is taking other steps, announcing a four-state shutdown of retail shopping malls, amusement parks and bowling alleys in the ongoing war against the coronavirus.
“Together we will reduce density [of people] and slow the spread of coronavirus,” Cuomo tweeted shortly after a news conference where he imposed a mandatory statewide order to cap in-office staffing at 50% of the workforce for all but essential businesses. The governor also announced a 1,000bed Navy hospital ship is headed to the city for possible assistance in handling nonvirus medical issues if local hospitals are overrun by victims of COVID-19.
The move to limit the number of people working at any business was intended to reduce the exposure of New Yorkers to possibly infected colleagues, with the governor declaring the mandatory move was another method of slowing the spread of the virus.
Cuomo brushed aside questions about the economic impact of workforce restrictions.
“We’re past that point,” he said. “There’s going to be an impact on the economy, and we’re going to have to deal with that crisis. But let’s deal with one crisis at a time.”
The governor added that certain crucial services, including pharmacies and health care outlets, will remain immune to the restrictions.
The USNS Comfort was headed to New York Harbor as a possible answer to the anticipated crunch for hospital beds if the virus infects as many New Yorkers as projected. The ship contains operating rooms and other medical services, and would treat noncoronavirus patients while city facilities focus on those infected by the virus.
“It’s an extraordinary step, obviously,” said Cuomo. “It is literally a floating hospital.”
Meanwhile, state investigators confirmed they were investigating reports of a new coronavirus cluster in Brooklyn’s heavily Hasidic section of Borough Park.
Still, the governor again shot down the idea of restricting movement within the five boroughs and barring the city’s 8.5 million residents from leaving home unless they are in need of essentials like food, prescriptions or medical care. De Blasio had suggested such a plan could be in place by Thursday, but the governor dismissed it as a nonstarter.
“This is a health issue, a public health crisis,” said Cuomo in his daily update. “Worse than the virus is the fear we’re dealing with [and] the rumors, how they spread: ‘I’m going to be quarantined. They’re not going to let me leave my house.’ ”