New York shutdown possible in January if the number of Covid cases continues to surge, according to Governor Andrew Cuomo.
“Of course a shutdown in January is possible,” Cuomo said at a news conference in Albany. “But there’s a big but,” he said, spelling the word out one letter at a time “B-U-T.”
The activities of New Yorkers and the status of Covid-19 infections will determine whether there will be a New York shutdown, he said.
New York is dealing with a spike of coronavirus cases, averaging about 10,294 new infections every day over the last week, a 7% increase compared with a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Cuomo did not disclose the details of a second shutdown. He implemented another ban on indoor dining in New York City on Monday but pointed out that he wants to keep public schools open. He has not yet given a decision on whether to order the closure of nonessential businesses.
“It is up to us. What will happen in three weeks? What will happen in four weeks? You tell me what you’re going to do over the next three weeks or four weeks, and I’ll tell you what’s going to happen,” he said.
New Yorkers are called to prepare for a second shutdown similar to the one that Cuomo imposed in the spring where nonessential businesses and schools were stopped and people were asked to stay home to contain the spread of the virus, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
He added it was “increasingly necessary just to break the back of the second wave, to stop this second wave from growing, to stop it from taking lives, to stop it from threatening our hospitals."
Cuomo told New Yorkers to take “personal responsibility” to minimize the spread of the virus, especially during the holiday season. The state is worried about what the governor refers to as “living room spread.” That is because statewide contact tracing data has revealed that households and social gatherings are responsible for 74% of new infections.
“Nobody knows what New Yorkers will do between now and Christmas, and how they will act on Christmas week,” Cuomo said. “The numbers are not predestined. The numbers a reflection of what we do.”
The governor called on the state’s hospitals to act in a “crisis management mode,” meaning that health-care systems must collaborate with other hospital systems to “share the burden” of patients and send resources to hospitals in areas with high infection rates.
“Balance the load so you don’t have hospitals getting overwhelmed, which is what we saw in the past,” Cuomo said.
New York has administered the initial distribution of Covid-19 vaccines to front-line health-care workers. Cuomo reported that the state has so far received 87,750 doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine and will get 80,000 doses more in the next few days.
“That will go for residents at nursing homes,” Cuomo said. New York could get another 346,000 doses of vaccine from Moderna if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration clears it for emergency use this week.
“Slow the spread, manage the hospitals, administer the vaccine,” Cuomo said.
