Cuomo, de Blasio differ on ‘shelter in place’
Mayor Bill de Blasio said New York City residents should be prepared for the possibility of a “shelter in place” order within days, though the state’s governor immediately knocked that down, saying people weren’t about to be confined to their homes. State officials on Tuesday also scrambled to bring more hospital beds online as the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state rose above 1,300.
The latest coronavirus developments in New York:
Shelter in Place?
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday that residents of the nation’s largest city should be prepared for the possibility of a “shelter-inplace” order within days, a remark that raised alarm and prompted the state’s governor two hours later to squelch the notion that a lockdown was imminent.
De Blasio stressed that no decision had been made yet, but that he wants city and state officials to make one within 48 hours, given the fast spread of the coronavirus.
“New Yorkers should be prepared right now for the possibility of a shelter-inplace order,” de Blasio said at a news briefing.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo threw cold water on the idea of such an order two hours later in an interview on cable news station NY1, saying the city didn’t have the power to make such a declaration and that any such order — if it didn’t cover the entire region — would prompt people to flee.
“There’s not going to be any ‘you must stay in your house,’ because, again, that will just cause people to go somewhere else, and that will be counterproductive,” Cuomo said.
“There is not going to be any quarantine, no one is going to lock you in your home. No one is going to tell you you can’t leave the city. That is not going to happen,” he said.
Such an order would represent a dramatic escalation of restrictions on the city of more than 8 million that has more than 800 coronavirus cases. Officials in six San Francisco Bay-area counties took that step with a shelter-inplace order that went into effect Tuesday. That order requires nearly 7 million residents to stay inside and venture out only for food, medicine or exercise for three weeks.
Cuomo had earlier said more restrictions on business would come first and that a quarantine would have to be at least statewide.
De Blasio acknowledged such an order was not without challenges, especially for people who have lost paychecks because businesses are closed.
“A shelter in place begs a lot of questions,” he said “What is going to happen with folks who have no money? How are they going to get food? How are they going to get medicines?”
De Blasio said he would use city police to enforce a “monitoring system that made sense” but didn’t elaborate.
“We have never been here before,” he said. “I have never heard of anything like this in the history of New York City.”
Hospital Beds Needed
Cuomo said Tuesday that demand for hospital beds in New York state could outstrip current capacity by tens of thousands when cases of the coronavirus outbreak reaches an expected peak there in 45 days.
Cuomo revealed the projections as confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus statewide shot up to more than 1,300. There were 264 hospitalizations and 12 deaths.
For most people, the coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. The vast majority of people recover from the new virus.
State and city officials are taking extraordinary efforts to avoid a worstcase scenario by slowing the spread of the virus. New York has jointly ordered the closings of bars, restaurants, gyms and other businesses with New Jersey and Connecticut, and Cuomo said the states could coordinate on more limitations.
Officials are also scrambling to increase the number of hospital beds in New York from 53,000, with 3,000 ICU beds.
Cuomo said the at the current rate of spread, the state would need 55,000 to 110,000 hospital beds and 18,600 to 37,200 ICU beds
“The numbers are daunting,” he said.
Cuomo said the state also will need more ventilators to treat severe cases.
Public Transit Ridership Plummets
The head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority says ridership on subways and commuter rail lines has nose-dived as people stay home to avoid coronavirus, and it’s facing a “financial calamity” because of the revenue loss.
MTA Chairman and CEO Patrick Foye on Tuesday sent a letter to the state’s congressional delegation, saying ridership on New York City subways was down by 60%, and 49% on city buses. The commuter rails were even worse — down 90% on Metro-North Railroad and 67% on the Long Island Rail Road.
Foye said the projected impact would be more than $4 billion by the end of the year and asked the delegation for help in getting that amount in federal aid.
St. Patrick’s Day Parade
Organizers of New York’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade gathered Tuesday for a rain-soaked march up Fifth Avenue with a banner and flags at around 7 a.m., led by police cars with flashing lights.
Images were posted on social media of about 30 people posing with a banner in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan and people marching in the predawn gloom as bagpipe music plays.
Hilary Beirne, chairman of the St. Patrick’s Day Foundation, said about 10 parade committee members marched with an escort from the Fighting 69th regiment to preserve the tradition of “the NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade marching on the streets of New York City every year since 1762.”