NEW YORK (Reuters) – The governor of New York state cracked down on public gatherings more severely on Wednesday as the coronavirus health crisis rages on, calling residents “selfish” for refusing to remain confined to their homes .
Andrew Cuomo has called on New York City Police to enforce more stringent social distancing rules as the state’s death toll neared the 2,000 threshold.
“Young people must hear this message, they still have not understood, we always see too many situations with too much density involving young people,” he said during a press briefing, after deciding to closing all playgrounds in New York City in an attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus. [nL8N2BP6TQ]
According to a Reuters tally, more than 4,700 people have died from Covid-19 in the United States and more than 212,000 confirmed cases of contamination have been reported.
US health authorities have said they expect the toll of the pandemic to exceed the threshold of 100,000 deaths, and could reach 240,000 deaths, in the coming months despite the containment measures. [nL8N2BP08T]
Donald Trump said Wednesday during a press briefing that he was not ruling out banning certain domestic air links to the cities of the country most affected by the virus, which could concern New York, New Orleans and Detroit. [nL8N2BP86U]
So far, 38 US states as well as the District of Columbia, where the capital Washington is located, have already called on residents to confine themselves and leave their homes only in emergencies – measures affecting some 260 million people , or 80% of the population of the United States.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told a news conference the city is making deals with hotels to get 65,000 patient beds by the end of the month. He said he had already obtained some 10,000 beds in about twenty hotels, whose attendance has fallen sharply while the pandemic has caused massive postponements of travel.
While New York remains the epicenter of the coronavirus in the country, other states have reported a surge in cases of contamination, including California, Michigan and Florida.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has warned that the state could find itself within six weeks of a shortage of beds in intensive care units equipped with ventilators.
(Maria Caspani in New York, Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles, with Susan Heavey, Doina Chiacu, Tim Ahmann and Nathan Layne; French version Jean Terzian)
