NEW YORK _ Gov. Andrew Cuomo, after seeing New Rochelle emerge as home to the nation's largest coronavirus population in the last week, unveiled a radically ramped-up state response.
The governor announced an unprecedented plan Tuesday to combat the virus with the establishment of a mile-wide "containment zone" for the next two weeks in the Westchester County city, complete with the deployment of the National Guard and the closings of local schools and houses of worship.
The number of infected county citizens climbed to 108 in the last week, with the vast majority linked to a single case of coronavirus connected to a New Rochelle father of four.
"The numbers are going up unabated, and we do need a new public health strategy for New Rochelle," said Cuomo at his daily upstate news conference. "What we are going to do is focus on a concentric circle around the sites of the majority of the cases in New Rochelle. ... It is a dramatic action, but it is the largest cluster in the country.
"This is a matter of life and death."
All "major gathering places" in the designated section of the city will be shuttered from Wednesday through March 25 as part of the effort to stem the spread of the potentially lethal virus in the city that became the outbreak's epicenter, the governor said. Three schools will be closed in New Rochelle, along with a fourth in Tuckahoe.
The National Guard was also moved into a Health Department command post in New Rochelle as part of the more-aggressive approach to halting the spread of coronavirus. The troops will help with scrubbing the designated public spaces in the danger zone and with delivering food to local residents, particularly kids who typically receive a free school lunch.
"Don't worry about the National Guard," said New Rochelle Mayor Noah Bramson. "They are here to help. ... We are not under martial law, there is no quarantined zone, nobody is barred from moving around."
The coronavirus spread so quickly in part because the first New Rochelle victim, a lawyer who commutes by train to Manhattan, attended services at a local synagogue that was eventually closed down because of the infection. The rabbi and other worshippers became infected at the temple, where a funeral and a bat mitzvah were also held one day after the man's appearance.
The latest numbers show 173 New Yorkers infected with the coronavirus, up 31 from a day earlier, with 14 currently hospitalized. In hopes of identifying more potential cases, the state will partner with Northwell Health to arrange a satellite testing facility right in New Rochelle.
In New York City, the number of infected now stands at 36 residents, with 17 identified as new. Another two new cases were reported in Nassau County, where infected school bus drivers forced the closing of three local school districts. There were also two new cases in Rockland County, right next door to Westchester.
And New Jersey reported its first coronavirus fatality, a 69-year-old Bergen County man who passed away at the Hackensack University Medical Center.
Mayor Bill de Blasio sounded a reassuring tone Tuesday morning.
"If you're under 50 and you're healthy, which is most New Yorkers, there's very little threat here," he said. "Transmission is not that easy. I think there's been a misperception that coronavirus hangs in the air, waiting to catch you. No, it takes direct person-to-person contact."
De Blasio also announced plans to double the number of "disease detectives" by training nurses to conduct initial coronavirus screenings. The investigators actually dig into the patient's contacts with others in an effort to track the virus to its source and identify people at risk of infection.
While de Blasio said Monday that the city was planning to hold the 257th annual St. Patrick's Day Parade, a March 17 tradition since 1762, Cuomo suggested things could change. With the parades in Dublin and Boston already scratched, the governor suggested canceling the nation's oldest and largest Irish parade "is one of the things we're looking at."
In other coronavirus news, the United Nations announced it would close its New York headquarters to the public and suspend all tours. And rock band Pearl Jam announced its March 30 shows at Madison Square Garden, along with the rest of its spring tour, was postponed. The Seattle quintet squeezed in a quick shot at the Trump administration in a statement on its website.
"It certainly hasn't helped that there's been no clear messages from our government regarding people's safety and our ability to go to work," the band wrote. "Having no examples of our national health department's ability to get ahead of this, we have no reason to believe that it will be under control in the coming weeks ahead."
