The Trump administration on Tuesday instructed anyone who has recently left New York to self-quarantine for 14 days because of the extreme number of coronavirus cases confirmed in New York City.
Dr. Deborah Birx said during a press conference, “56% of all the cases in the United States are coming out of that metro area and 60% of all the new cases are coming out of the metro New York area.”
“To everyone who has left New York over the last few days, because of the rate of the number of cases, you may have been exposed before you left New York,” Birx continued. “Everybody who was in New York should be self-quarantining for the next 14 days.”
WATCH:
Dr. Deborah Birx on NYC/coronavirus: “56% of all the cases in the U.S. are coming out of that metro area… to everyone who has left NY over the last few days… you may have been exposed before you left … everybody who was in NY should be self-quarantining for the next 14 days” pic.twitter.com/LzXT68mf5Q
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) March 24, 2020
Vice President Mike Pence also reiterated the point several minutes later during the press conference.
“As several have mentioned, we’re particularly focused on New York,” Pence said. “The reality is the New York metro area was 60% of the new cases in the country. The infection rates are roughly 1 in 1,000 in the New York City metro area.”
“It is the reason why today, the White House Coronavirus Task Force is calling on any American first and foremost in [New York City] to take the guidelines that we issued and avoid non-essential travel,” Pence continued. “But for anyone in the New York metropolitan area who has traveled, our task force is encouraging you to monitor your temperature, be sensitive to symptoms, and we are asking anyone who has traveled out of the New York City metropolitan area to anywhere else in the country to self-isolate for 14 days.”
The New York Times reported:
The White House warning came as Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo offered a grim forecast for the outbreak in New York, saying that it would flood the state’s strained hospitals with as many as 140,000 stricken patients in the next few weeks.
Mr. Cuomo said that in New York City, new cases appeared to be doubling every three days. The crisis has already claimed the lives of more than 200 people statewide, and 131 in the city.
Despite the city’s efforts to slow the spread of the virus, Mr. Cuomo said the number of infections could reach its peak by mid-April, far outrunning earlier projections.
“We haven’t flattened the curve and the curve is actually increasing,” New York Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo said. “The apex is higher than we thought and the apex is sooner than we thought. That is a bad combination of facts.”
Cuomo lashed out at the administration for only sending 400 ventilators when the state needs over 30,000.
“You want a pat on the back for sending 400 ventilators? What are we going to do with 400 ventilators when we need 30,000?” Cuomo said. “I don’t, for the life of me, understand the reluctance to use the federal Defense Production Act.”
During an interview on Fox News, Trump responded to Cuomo’s statement, saying, “I’m not blaming him or anything else, but he shouldn’t be talking about us. He’s supposed to be buying his own ventilators.”
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