De Blasio States Coronavirus to be a 6-Month Crisis

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a state of emergency in the city on Thursday. He explained that the coronavirus outbreak would easily be a six-month crisis.

Large places like Barclays Center and Madison Square Garden can possibly close for months as officials try to contain the fast-spreading virus.

De Blasio stated, “Yesterday morning seems like a long time ago. We got a lot of information in the course of a day yesterday, and a lot changed then, then last night it just seemed the world turned upside down in the course of just a few hours.”

Also, he expressed how the past 24 hours has been too sobering.

Moreover, the announcement gives the city a broad range of new authority. And these include the power to establish curfews, shut down public transit, close public spaces, ration goods, implement price restrictions, and suspend alcohol sales.

Now, the city has 95 confirmed Covid-19 cases. And among them, 42 reported in the last 24 hours. Over 1,780 people are currently under voluntary quarantine in the city. Then, another 29 people under mandatory quarantine. De Blasio said that by next week, the number of cases in the city might jump to 1,000.

The Mayor expressed, “I don’t think for most of us who even have been in public life a long time we’ve seen a situation quite like this, where we receive extraordinary new information on what now feels like an hourly basis. So, we’re constantly making adjustments.”

According to De Blasio, people need to expect major changes every day.

The Cases

A full quarantine in the city, like the one taken in China to stem the outbreak, will degrade the lives of people and is unrealistic, the Mayor thinks.

He will fight tooth and nail to keep schools open. de Blasio explained, “Kids need meals, and parents need a place for them to go.”

Ten percent of the city’s workforce or about 35,000 people will work from home in his short order. Then, another 20% of the city’s employees will be working on a staggered schedule.

During the day, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo halted gatherings of more than 500 people across the state for the foreseeable future.

Based on Cuomo, the state might see a spread of Covid-19 similar to China, South Korea, and Italy – where the new coronavirus has millions of people under lockdown and has shuttered commerce.

Cuomo and de Blasio both pleaded for the federal government to help. The Mayor expressed how concern he was about keeping people employed. And many businesses will be cutting back or shutting down.

Also, he pushed the federal government to approve automated Covid-19 testing. This will let labs process thousands of cases a day instead of a few hundred.

Aside from that, he did not hesitate to say that this might be the last chance. If the President Donald Trump and the FDA will not approve, he cannot blame any municipality for taking matters into their hands.

Last night, President Trump outlined steps showing much more connection to reality. However, it does not give cities and states their needs to manage the outbreak.