Daily US Times: President Trump has decided to alter his previous stand of imposing a broad two-week lockdown on New York and its neighbors. He decided not to impose the lockdown after local political leaders strongly warned of the panic it could spark.
The President’s decision came on last Saturday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), however, advised the residents of the region not to travel except for essential purposes.
He stunned the New York metropolitan region, the epicenter of the US coronavirus outbreak, with a proposal to place it under two-week lockdown to prevent residents from leaving, but after eight hours later he tweeted, “A quarantine will not be necessary.”
A lockdown of that kind would be the harshest move yet taken by the US government to slow the spread of the disease.
Earlier President Trump had indicated that he was responding to worries in other states, particularly Florida, that travelers from the greater New York City area could spread COVID-19 in their communities. He said that “heavily infected” New Yorkers were a threat to Florida,
But after strong warnings from New Jersey Governor Ned Lamont and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Trump reversed course and said there would only be travel warnings for the region.
Mr Trump said on Twitter: “On the recommendation of the White House CoronaVirus Task Force, and upon consultation with the Governors of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, I have asked the (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) to issue a strong Travel Advisory.”
After Trump’s decision, CDC issued a travel advisory that urged residents of the three neighboring states “to refrain from non-essential domestic travel for 14 days effective immediately.”
US epicenter
New York state is considered to the US epicenter of the outbreak. Nearly half of the total confirmed coronavirus cases in the country are from this state.
More than 124,000 cases have been confirmed across the US while 53,000 cases are from New York.
On Saturday, according to Johns Hopkins University data, New York City has reported a surge of more than 155 deaths, taking the city’s total to 672, about one-third of the 2,185 fatalities across the United States.
Neighboring New Jersey is also facing a surge and has reported more than 11,100 COVID-19 cases.
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