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Coronavirus: Mayor Bill de Blasio announces that New York is preparing for possible total quarantine

By Erik Ortiz and Corky Siemaszko

The “city that never sleeps” could be closed in 48 hours.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday that he was considering imposing a “shelter-in-place” order, which would essentially require residents to remain at home and maintain social contact with the outdoors by minimum, to stop the coronavirus spread in the largest city in the United States.

“New Yorkers should be prepared right now for the possibility of a ‘shelter-in-place’ order,” de Blasio said. “The decision will be made in the next 48 hours.”

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If imposed, the New York order would follow the example of several counties in the Bay area, including San Francisco and Oakland, where people have prohibited from leaving their homes “except for essential needs”.

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The city, home to more than eight million people, has reported more than 460 cases of coronavirus and has added at least seven deaths since the outbreak began to affect the United States in late January.

De Blasio acknowledged that New Yorkers face “tremendously substantial challenges” if this order is imposed.

“I don’t take this lightly,” he said. “People have to understand that right now, with so many New Yorkers losing their jobs, losing their wages, dealing with all kinds of stress and tension, I constantly hear from people who are tremendously concerned about how they are going to make ends meet.”

“In that scenario, a shelter-in-place order raises a lot of questions,” said the mayor. “What is going to happen to people who don’t have money?”

In recent days, De Blasio has taken firm measures such as the schools closed until April 20 and a restriction that restaurants and bars only work for take-away orders and home deliveries. Nightclubs, movie theaters, Broadway theaters and concert halls have also closed their doors, as health officials have pointed out the need to avoid crowds.

The usually busy Times Square in New York looks bleak in this March 16 image, out of fear of the spread of the coronavirus. Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

During the press conference, de Blasio did not disclose details of what a refugee order would look like there. But he compared the current crisis to the 1918 influenza pandemic, which infected a third of the world’s population and killed about 50 million people, including 675,000 in the United States alone.

“In terms of economic dislocation, I think it is fair to say that we are going to quickly overcome everything we saw in the Great Recession and that the only measure or the only comparison will be the Great Depression,” he said.

Leaders in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have also coordinated efforts to curb social interactions by banning crowds of 50 or more people, even when the meetings are in private.

Also read:

Coronavirus: more than 30 states close their schools (and how the measure will affect the poorest)

Where is it going to come from for rent? ” Coronavirus layoffs and quarantines punish Hispanics

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