By Canadian Press

Cuomo bans gatherings, nonessential workers to stay home

Mar 20, 2020 | 11:14 AM

ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced sweeping orders Friday that will severely restrict the ability of more than 19 million New York state residents to gather and socialize and to require workers in nonessential businesses to stay home.

The Democratic governor said the “drastic action” was needed to check the rapid spread of the coronavirus virus in a state with more than 7,000 confirmed cases, the most in the nation. New York’s restrictions, effective 8 p.m. Sunday, come a day after California decided to all but confine its population in the biggest lockdown in the U.S.

“No, this is not life as usual,” Cuomo said at a news conference. “Accept it, and realize it, and deal with it.”

New York officials said more than 1,200 people have already been hospitalized since the outbreak, and new restrictions are needed to keep the health care system from being overwhelmed. Johns Hopkins University put the state’s fatality count at 38.

Nonessential gatherings of individuals of any size or for any reason are cancelled or postponed, including parties and celebrations. Essential workers will be able to gather and people will be able to walk outside or take part in non-contact activities, but no “playing basketball with five other people,” Cuomo said.

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“You can’t say to someone, ‘You must be locked in your apartment 24 hours a day for the foreseeable future.’ Look what you’re saying to people. This could be going on for months,” he said.

The restrictions will ban parents from bringing kids to play dates at friends’ houses and ban parents from bringing kids to potentially crowded playgrounds. Local officials could help enforce the rules and break up gatherings, according to Cuomo senior advisor Richard Azzopardi, though individuals won’t face civil fines.

Public transit will keep running, but individuals besides essential workers can only use public transportation when absolutely necessary, under the state’s new rules.

People will need to stay at least 6 feet away from other people when they are out in public, Cuomo said.

The new restrictions were met with resignation by some people in New York City, where museums, clubs and restaurants have already been shuttered.

“I’m going out now but then I’m coming home,” said David Gibson, 50, a jazz trombonist who played his last show Sunday night before nightclubs were all closed. “We’ve been staying in. I’m a musician so all of my work got cancelled last week. My wife’s a musician. So we’re just sitting at home right now and making soup.”

Stricter rules are in place for people over 70, people with compromised immune systems and those with underlying illness. They should pre-screen all visitors and aides by taking temperatures and avoid visiting houses with multiple people. All vulnerable people should wear a mask when around others, and everyone in their presence should wear a mask.

Additionally, only essential businesses can have workers commuting to the job or on the job, Cuomo said. That order tightens previous work-from-home restrictions that exempted businesses providing certain services, including media, warehouses, grocery and food production facilities, pharmacies, health care providers, utilities and banks.

Cuomo said there will be civil fines and mandatory closure for any business not in compliance.

“These provisions will be enforced” he said. “These are not helpful hints.”

For most people, the coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death. The vast majority of people recover.

HIGH-RISK INMATES

A public defenders group demanded the immediate release of 116 New York city jail inmates they say are vulnerable to the coronavirus.

A lawsuit filed Friday by The Legal Aid Society says the plaintiffs are older and sick inmates who are being held while they wait for trial or because they violated parole. Continuing to jail them “constitutes a deliberate indifference to the risk of serious medical harm,” it says.

A jail oversight board had already called for the immediate release of all high-risk inmates after an investigator assigned to the jails died from COVID-19, the disease that causes the virus.

The city’s jail system has about 8,000 inmates, most at notorious Rikers Island. At least one inmate there has tested positive for the virus.

A city Law Department spokesman said the suit was under review.

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Associated Press reporters Karen Matthews and Tom Hays contributed from New York. The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Marina Villeneuve And Michael Hill, The Associated Press