Photo: Stock Unsplash
March 9, 2020 By Allie Griffin
With the number of coronavirus cases in New York increasing daily, Mayor Bill de Blasio advised New Yorkers to skip packed subway cars and to work from home if possible.
New York City now has 16 confirmed cases, including two in Queens, the Mayor said this morning. Yesterday, the city total was at 13 cases of novel coronavirus, or COVID-19 — but the mayor warned of triple-digit numbers in the coming weeks.
“I think we could well be at a hundred cases or hundreds of cases over the next two or three weeks,” de Blasio said at a press conference Sunday.
Statewide, there are more than 100 confirmed cases of coronavirus and the governor declared a state of emergency on Saturday.
As the number of cases increases, Mayor de Blasio said to avoid close contact, like crowded subway cars, as the virus spreads from close person-to-person contact.
“If you are traveling by subway and the train that comes up is all packed and you can possibly wait for the next train in the hopes it might be less packed, please do,” de Blasio said.
He said New Yorkers should walk or bike to work if they’re able to or hop on the bus if it’s less crowded than the subway.
He said employers who can institute telecommuting should do so and if not, they should stagger work times so that less people are commuting at the height of rush hours.
“Right now, at the height of rush hour, obviously people — we’ve all experienced it, we’ve all been the sardines in the subway. We’re in super close proximity,” de Blasio said. “We’d like to open that up a little more and one of the good ways to do it is to stagger work hours.”
COVID-19 is transmitted when respiratory droplets from a sneeze, cough or spit of an infected person is transferred directly into another person. According to city disease detectives, the virus doesn’t survive for more than two or three minutes in open air.
Health officials advise people to wash your hands for at least 20 seconds, use alcohol-based hand sanitizer, cough or sneeze into a tissue or your elbow and avoid touching your eyes, mouth and nose.
As of Sunday, 19 New York City residents were under mandatory quarantine and 2,176 are under voluntary home isolation.
Compared to the 16 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the city, there were 201 negative tests and 86 are still pending, the mayor told NY1 today.
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14 Comments
This is deBlasio’s 9/11, but instead of breathing through asbestos, he gives privileged advice while taking every opportunity to leave the city and chase a presidential pipe dream. #DurrFace
Every New Yorker except Di Bla Bla knows that an empty subway car means a homeless rider with the best perfume ever is rolling on that car
Which begs the question . . . why are homeless allowed to occupy any subway car during this crisis????
Packed subway cars as opposed to empty ones? When you only ride the train for a photo op, you have no clue that the trains are always packed because of delays such as switch, signal, track, door, disruptive passenger, brake pulled, and on and on.
“Avoid packed subway cars” = Unhelpful advice. How about mandating flexible hours to lessen subway overcrowding, etc?
Yea, Clown de Blasio tells us to avoid packed subway cars when he rides back and forth to work and his gym in a private limo. Give me a break.
Isn’t he a brain!!! Ok, avoid packed subway cars….and take an extra 2 hrs to get home or to work! Here’s a thought Mr. genius. ADD MORE SUBWAY CARS!!!!
What about all the homeless people that ride the subways throughout NYC that then walk around the neighborhood and sleep on our streets. The Ditmars area is full of homeless people with some being mentally ill begging for food and money. One woman asked me for spare change on 21st. ave and 31st St. and when I told her I did not have any she spit on the sidewalk right in front of me. Our neighborhood streets have turned int0 a dirty NYC crowded subway car.
This is why we need more bike lanes in Astoria to travel to and from places when possible without getting onto the subway!
What if it is raining? This is why we need to get rid of bike lanes for more car lanes.
But what about for those who don’t have cars???
That’s great if you are young, healthy and are within riding distance. Personally, I’d love to be able to ride a bike all the way downtown. Not only am I not in physical shape to do so, there aren’t any bike lanes on the east side that go all the way to the Financial District. There are lanes all the way down the west side.
Stopping the coronavirus requires health care access and paid sick leave.
First the PRC tried to weaponize the corona virus, now the DNC will. With help from CPUSA.