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All schools in New York state are also closing for at least two weeks, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced. The move came on the heels of the closing of New York City’s public school system, the nation’s largest, for at least five weeks.
Casinos, gyms and movie theaters in the three states will be closed effective at 8 p.m. Monday, Cuomo of New York said on a joint call with his fellow governors.
Bars and restaurants would be limited to takeout and delivery, the governor said, stressing that a coordinated regional approach was necessary to prevent people from traveling from state to state to seek amenities.
Groceries, gas stations, pharmacies and some other essential businesses will be allowed to remain open. The governor said he was also encouraging, but not yet ordering, other businesses to close at 8 p.m.
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The closing of bars and restaurants preempts the plan for New York City, which announced Sunday that restaurants, bars, nightclubs, small theaters and movie houses would all close Tuesday morning. That deadline is now moved up to Monday night.
“When states can work together well, it makes all the difference in the world,” Cuomo said.
Some of the region’s most famous landmarks, including the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the Empire State Building, also shut down.
On Monday, Cuomo praised the increase in capacity to test for the virus afforded to the state by the federal government but criticized the Trump administration’s overall response to the crisis. “It’s inexcusable,” Cuomo said of the federal response. “We’re doing the best we can.”
Cuomo and his counterparts said there were no plans to close public transit anywhere in the region.
Officials have emphasized that mass transit must run to keep the health care system functioning. If there were shutdowns, health care workers would have difficulty reaching hospitals and other health care facilities.
As of Monday, New York state had 950 confirmed coronavirus cases, officials said, up from 729 on Sunday. Seven people have died from the virus. One hundred fifty-eight people have been hospitalized.
New Jersey had 98 confirmed coronavirus cases as of Sunday, an increase of 31 cases from the day before. Two people in the state have died after testing positive for the virus.
The largest concentration of cases in New York state is in New York City, where 463 people have tested positive, up from 329 on Saturday. There were 220 confirmed cases in Westchester County, just north of New York City. On Long Island, there were 109 confirmed cases in Nassau County and 63 in Suffolk County.
The city’s Department of Health issued guidance Sunday urging New Yorkers to act as if they personally had been exposed to coronavirus.
Residents were asked to leave home only for essential tasks such as work, getting groceries and supplies or essential medical care.
On Sunday, Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City announced a number of other measures: He ordered hospitals in the city to cancel all elective surgery, postponed an upcoming election for the Queens borough president and closed city senior centers. Visits to the Rikers Island jail are also suspended.
In addition, Cuomo asked all nonessential state employees who work in the southern part of the state — New York City, Long Island, and Rockland and Westchester counties — to work from home.
In Albany, the state legislative session is being postponed until later in the week, said a spokesman for the Senate majority, Mike Murphy.
“We believe this is the best course to ensure the safety of the senators, staff and media,” Murphy said.
New York City schools are closed, with online lessons starting next week.
The decision to close New York City’s 1.1-million-student public school system, effective this morning, came after days of mounting pressure on de Blasio, who had vowed to keep the schools open as long as possible because so many working families depend on them not just for education but for child care and meals.
“This is not something in a million years I could have imagined having to do,” the mayor said.
The city plans to restart school next Monday, with instruction being offered online. Students who do not have computers at home will be lent laptops, and the city will work on helping students who do not have internet access get online.
“These children need you,” the mayor said in an appeal to the city’s teachers. “Keep their education going.”
Some campuses will reopen March 23 as “enrichment centers.” They will be set up to provide instruction and services for vulnerable children, including homeless students and children with special needs.
The mayor said he hoped to reopen the school system April 20 but cautioned that there was a strong chance that schools would stay shut for the rest of the academic year.
“The facts have given us no other choice,” he said.
In New Jersey, most of the state’s public schools are already closed, and Gov. Philip D. Murphy said that a statewide school shutdown was “imminent.”
And in Connecticut, Gov. Ned Lamont said Sunday that all public schools in the state will shut down Tuesday and stay closed until at least March 31.
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Experts warn the outbreak could lead to widespread job losses and business failures.
New York City faces the prospect of sweeping job losses and business failures, with movie theaters, Broadway, bars, restaurants and tourism all closing down or heavily restricted.
Ronnie Lowenstein, director of the city’s Independent Budget Office, said the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak could be more severe than the toll of crises like the 2001 terrorist attacks or the 2008 financial meltdown.
“Economic activity slows, and time stops,” she said. “Everything gets affected.”
New York City, which has more than 25,000 restaurants and 120,000 hotel rooms, is particularly at risk because of its reliance on tourism.
James Parrott, director of economic and fiscal policies at the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School, said the city is likely to lose as many as 500,000 tourism jobs, with lost wages amounting to $1 billion a month.
Scott M. Stringer, the New York City comptroller, estimated Monday that restrictions announced in recent days “could conservatively cost the city $3.2 billion in lost tax revenues over the next six months.”
Between now and the end of June, he said restaurant sales could decline by 80% and real estate and retail sales by 20%, with hotels operating at 20% occupancy.
“We’re facing the possibility of a prolonged recession,” Stringer said in a statement.
De Blasio, asked Monday morning about relief for businesses and workers affected by the decision to close bars and restaurants, said, “We’re getting grants and loans and things for small businesses, but that’s a small piece.
“We need a massive federal relief program,” he said.
De Blasio said that feeding stations would have to be created to serve different groups, including schoolchildren whose buildings had shut down.
“Let’s be clear,” the mayor said. “We’re getting close to a reality where the government has to insure that the food supply, that it is not only available but that it’s equitably distributed.”
Cuomo calls for the Army Corps of Engineers to build more hospital beds.
Cuomo renewed his request Monday morning for the Army Corps of Engineers to be deployed to help New York State create more hospital beds.
He called for the Army Corps to help retrofit facilities like college dormitories into makeshift medical wards.
About 80% of the state’s 3,000 intensive-care beds are already full, the governor said.
“I don’t believe we are going to be able to flatten the curve” of rapid growth in virus cases “enough to meet the capacity of the health care system,” Cuomo said.
Cuomo said the state would mobilize the National Guard and work with building unions and private developers to find locations for temporary health care facilities.
He said the state had identified thousands of potential hospital beds as part of that plan, including 5,000 in New York City, 2,000 in Westchester County and 1,000 each in Nassau and Suffolk counties.
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New York postpones court cases and cancels jail visits.
State courts in New York will indefinitely postpone many criminal cases and stop performing all but the most essential functions to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, officials said.
Eviction proceedings have also been suspended statewide until further notice.
The order will put hundreds of cases on hold. People charged with felonies who are out on bail will have their cases adjourned “until further notice,” the state’s chief administrative judge, Lawrence K. Marks, said in a memo.
Defendants awaiting trial in jail will have their hearings put off or conducted via video. People’s initial court appearances will also be conducted by video in New York City.
The city’s Red Hook Community Court and the Midtown Community Court have been designated as arraignment sites for people at “medical risk” for coronavirus where they can appear remotely by video.
The city has also suspended visits to city jails will be suspended starting Wednesday.
The city said it will increase access to phones and postage to help detainees stay in contact with friends and family, and officials said they may also establish a “televisit” system that allowed people to contact detainees using computers or mobile devices.
The suspension comes after the city Department of Correction said that a department employee had tested positive for the coronavirus.
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As city slams on the brakes, de Blasio goes to the gym.
From the beginning of his time as mayor, de Blasio has regularly spent time traveling from Gracie Mansion in Manhattan to work out at a YMCA in Park Slope, Brooklyn, 11 miles away.
On Monday, in the middle of a coronavirus outbreak during which he has repeatedly called for social distancing, he was there again, shortly after Cuomo announced that he was ordering all gyms in New York to close in an effort to halt the spread of the virus.
The mayor’s press secretary, Freddi Goldstein, offered an explanation. “The YMCA has been a huge part of his and his family’s life, like it has been for a lot of New Yorkers,” she said. “It’s clear that’s about to change, and before that, the mayor wanted to visit a place that keeps him grounded one last time.”
Cuomo’s order does not take effect until 8 p.m., at which point all gyms, casinos and movie theaters in the state will be closed, and bars and restaurants would be limited to takeout and delivery.
“He can be in the gym this morning,” Cuomo said of de Blasio at a news conference. “You can be in the gym this afternoon. You can be in the gym this evening. You just can’t be in the gym after 8 o’clock.”
De Blasio’s morning fitness ritual has come under criticism before. Environmentalists say that his practice of driving to the Y is at odds with his attempts to fight climate change.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times .