Edited by: TJV News
Officials announced Saturday that New York state’s Soronavirus caseload is on a steady rise, now up to 76 from the last count of 44. The new number prompted Gov. Andrew Cuomo to declare a state of emergency to bolster the medical response to the outbreak. No one has died from the new virus in the state.
“I’m not urging calm,” Cuomo added. “I’m urging reality. I’m urging a factual response as opposed to an emotional response…that people understand the information and not the hype.”
Fox News reported that George Latimer, Westchester County executive, told “America’s News Headquarters” shortly after the Cuomo’s press conference, “What spreads faster than the disease is the fear of the disease.”
As more than 4,000 people in the state have been encouraged to self-quarantine, a Queens man who drives for taxi or ride-hailing services tested positive after showing up to a St. John’s Episcopal Hospital, which prompted 40 doctors and nurses to self-quarantine, meaning the staff will have to be replaced in the meantime, ABC 14 reports.
Cuomo complained, however, that many New Yorkers are not following the self-quarantine requirements, but he says the state of emergency declaration will free up $30 million used for testing and the purchase of protective gear for healthcare workers, as was reported by Fox News.
Fox News reported that the governor warned stores could lose their licenses for price gouging items like hand sanitizer, one he said was selling it for $80 per bottle.
Cuomo, who earlier described the virus as “like a flu on steroids,” also emphasized that “more people are dying from the flu than dying from coronavirus,” as was reported by Fox News.
Cuomo said the state is reconsidering how to address the quarantine period for people in Westchester who are quarantined after coming in contact with people who have tested positive, to apply to their last contact with other people. The quarantine period is typically 14 days after last contact.
Fox News also reported that Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont announced a second New York state resident who works in the state testing positive for the virus.
“This most recent case of another New York resident who works in Connecticut testing positive for COVID-19 shows us what we already know – Coronavirus is here and viruses don’t stop at state borders,” Lamont said Saturday.
Here’s a look at the latest developments:
THE NUMBERS
Of the new cases, seven are in New York City, bringing the caseload there to 11. The new cases in the city include two people who got off a cruise ship and a driver for taxi or ride-sharing services in Queens, officials said.
Two residents of Saratoga County — a pharmacist and a woman who came in contact with an infected person at a conference in Florida — are also counted in the new total. Their cases are the first ones outside of the New York City region.
Statewide, 10 people have been hospitalized.
CONTINUED WORRIES OVER CLUSTER
Of those cases, by far the largest concentration — 57 — is in Westchester County, north of New York City. That includes 23 new cases there since the last count on Friday.
The Westchester outbreak has been traced to a synagogue in New Rochelle where the congregation was asked to self-quarantine earlier in the week after a person in the community was hospitalized with the illness. Since then, a growing number of friends and relatives of the patient, a 50-year-old lawyer who works in Manhattan, have tested positive.
“Westchester is obviously a problem for us,” Cuomo said. “They talk about contagion in clusters, and then the clusters tend to infect more and more people.”
As a precaution, nursing homes in that immediate area of the Young Israel of New Rochelle synagogue will suspend outside visitors, the governor said.
The risk that the virus could quickly spread and cause fatalities among nursing home residents “is what I worry about,” the Democrat said. “That’s what keeps me up at night.”
STATE OF EMERGENCY
State officials say the state of emergency will clear the way for more testing by allowing qualified professionals other than doctors and nurses to conduct the tests.
More testing that could detect additional cases “is good news because we know who these people are and can put them in isolation,” the governor said.
The emergency will clear the way for purchases of more supplies and the hiring of workers to help monitor self-quarantined patients, Cuomo added.
“Somebody has to go knock on their door, once a day,” he said. “This is labor intensive.” (AP & Fox News)
