NY delays presidential primary; Trump nixes quarantine idea
Jennifer Peltz | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 years, 7 months AGO
A medical worker sticks her head outside a COVID-19 testing tent set up outside Elmhurst Hospital Center in New York, Saturday, March 28, 2020. The hospital is caring for a high number of coronavirus patients in the city, and New York leads the nation in the number of cases, according to Johns Hopkins University, which is keeping a running tally. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
A medical worker holds an umbrella as she checks to to see if anyone is waiting in line outside a COVID-19 testing center at Elmhurst Hospital Center in New York, Saturday, March 28, 2020. The hospital is caring for a high number of coronavirus patients. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
A nurse stands outside the emergency entrance to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx borough of New York, Saturday, March 28, 2020, as she demonstrates with members of the New York Nursing Association in support of obtaining an adequate supply of personal protective equipment for nurses coming in contact with coronavirus patients. A member of the New York nursing community died earlier in the week at another New York hospital. The city leads the nation in the number of coronavirus cases. Nurses say they are having to reuse their equipment endangering patients and themselves. (AP Photo/Kathy Wi…
An emergency room nurse transports a bucket of donated flowers up a ramp leading to the ER outside Elmhurst Hospital Center in New York, Saturday, March 28, 2020. The hospital has been heavily taxed recently treating an influx of coronavirus patients. Currently New York leads the nation in the number of cases, according to Johns Hopkins University, which is keeping a running tally. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Nurses at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx borough of New York gather in front of the emergency room entrance to the hospital, Saturday, March 28, 2020, to demand adequate supplies of personal protective equipment in order to safely treat coronavirus patients. New York leads the nation in the highest number of cases of COVID-19. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Nurses stand on a grassy hill outside the emergency entrance to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx borough of New York, Saturday, March 28, 2020, as they demonstrate with members of the New York Nursing Association in support of obtaining an adequate supply of personal protective equipment for those treating coronavirus patients. A member of the New York nursing community died earlier in the week at another New York hospital. The city leads the nation in the number of coronavirus cases. Nurses say they are having to reuse their protective equipment endangering patients and themselves. (AP Pho…
A medical worker checks to see if anyone is waiting in line outside a COVID-19 testing tent at Elmhurst Hospital Center in New York, Saturday, March 28, 2020. The hospital is caring for a high number of coronavirus patients in the city. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Nurses stand on a hill outside the emergency entrance to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx borough of New York, Saturday, March 28, 2020, as they demonstrate with members of the New York Nursing Association in support of obtaining an adequate supply of personal protective equipment for those treating coronavirus patients. A member of the New York nursing community died earlier in the week at another New York hospital. The city leads the nation in the number of coronavirus cases. Nurses say they are having to reuse their protective equipment endangering patients and themselves. (AP Photo/Kath…
Rehabilitation nurse Edith Ihejirika holds a sign as she participates in a demonstration outside the emergency entrance to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx borough of New York, Saturday, March 28, 2020. Nurses at the hospital demonstrated demanding adequate Personal Protective Equipment after Mount Sinai West emergency room nurse Kious Kelly, died Tuesday, after a 10-day bout with the disease. New York has the most cases of the virus in the world, according to the World Health Organization. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
A medical worker points out the COVID-19 testing tent set up outside Elmhurst Hospital Center in New York, Saturday, March 28, 2020. The hospital is caring for a high number of coronavirus patients in the city. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
A person emerges from a tent set up in the driveway of the emergency entrance to Elmhurst Hospital Center in New York, Saturday, March 28, 2020, as others wait in line to be tested for coronavirus. The hospital is caring for a high number of coronavirus patients in the city. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
People waiting to be tested for COVID-19 line up with plenty of distance between themselves at Elmhurst Hospital Center in New York, Saturday, March 28, 2020. The hospital is caring for a high number of coronavirus patients in the city. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
An elderly patient is wheeled into the emergency entrance to Elmhurst Hospital Center in New York, Saturday, March 28, 2020. The hospital is caring for a high number of coronavirus patients in the city. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
In this March 28, 2020 photo provided by the United Nations, pallets containing 250,000 face masks rest on a landing dock at United Nations headquarters. On Saturday, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio accepted the masks from the U.N. for use in the city's battle against the coronavirus. (Eskinder Debebe/The United Nations via AP)
In this March 28, 2020 photo provided by the New York City Mayoral Photography Office, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio helps load a carton containing some of 250,000 face masks into a truck on a loading dock at U.N. headquarters. The U.N. donated the masks for New York City's fight against the coronavirus. (Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office via AP)
FILE - In this Feb. 18, 2016 file photo, Pat Foye, board commissioner of the Port Authority of N.Y. and N.J., attends a board of commissioners public session at 4 World Trade Center in New York. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said in a release that Foye learned Saturday, March 28, 2020, that he has tested positive for the coronavirus. It said he was isolating at home, feeling good and maintaining his full schedule. (Carmine Galasso/The Record via AP, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — As coronavirus cases rose in the national epicenter of New York, President Donald Trump surprised governors of the state and neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut by saying Saturday that he might impose a quarantine on their residents before tweeting later in the day that a travel advisory was the way to go.
Trump's comments about a quarantine led New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to call it illegal and “a federal declaration of war.” Meanwhile, Cuomo postponed New York's presidential primary from April to June, and nurses made anguished pleas for more protective equipment.
Here are the latest coronavirus developments in New York:
A TRI-STATE QUARANTINE?
Trump told reporters at the White House he was weighing the idea of a quarantine to prevent people in the tri-state area from traveling for a short time. Late Saturday, though, he tweeted that he'd decided to go with a travel advisory.
The travel advisory urges residents of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to immediately avoid any nonessential travel for two weeks.
All 50 U.S. states have reported some cases of the virus that causes COVID-19, but New York has the most, with over 52,000 positive tests for the illness and more than 700 deaths. About 7,300 people were in New York hospitals Saturday, including about 1,800 in intensive care.
The federal government has the power to take measures to prevent the spread of communicable diseases among states, but it's not clear whether that means Trump can order people not to leave their states.
Trump cited requests from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a fellow Republican and outspoken Trump supporter who has complained about New Yorkers coming to his state amid the outbreak and ordered them to isolate themselves on arrival for 14 days.
Trump said he had spoken with Cuomo, but the Democratic governor said there had been no talk of a quarantine when the two spoke Saturday morning.
The governor said roping off states would amount to “a federal declaration of war,” arguing it would be illegal, economically catastrophic, “preposterous,” and shortsighted when other parts of the U.S. are seeing cases rise, too.
“If you start walling off areas all across the country, it would be totally bizarre, counterproductive, anti-American, anti-social,” Cuomo told CNN.
Locking down the nation’s financial capital would shock the stock market and “paralyze the economy” at a time when Trump has indicated he’s itching to get it on track, the governor added.
“Why you would just create total pandemonium on top of a pandemic, I have no idea,” Cuomo said.
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PRIMARY DELAYED
Cuomo said he was delaying the state's presidential primary from April 28 to June 23, when the state plans to hold legislative congressional and local party primaries.
“I don’t think it’s wise to be bringing people to one location to vote" on the April date, he said.
New York joins over a dozen states that have delayed some elections. A smaller group including Ohio, Georgia, Louisiana, Connecticut, Maryland, Rhode Island, Indiana and Kentucky have also postponed their presidential primaries.
The governor's decision came as election commissioners across New York warned they were "risking" their health and safety to meet impending deadlines for testing machines and preparing ballots ahead of the April 28 date.
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CHANGE FOR HOSPITAL BIRTHS
Cuomo also says he's signing an executive order instructing hospitals to allow at least one partner into delivery rooms.
The governor took the action Saturday after some hospitals had barred patients from having any visitors, including expectant fathers, because of the risk those people could pose to health care workers if they are infected.
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NURSES APPEAL FOR MASKS
At a news conference outside city-run Jacobi Hospital, nurses called for more masks and other gear to safeguard themselves against the virus that has so far sickened more than 29,000 people and killed over 500 in the city.
At least one health care worker, Mount Sinai West assistant nursing manager Kious Kelly, 36, has died of the virus. Others also have fallen ill around the metropolitan region.
Jacobi nurses said managers at the Bronx hospital have been rationing protective equipment, making them unable to change out the high-end particle-filtering masks known as N95s as often as they should. Two Jacobi nurses are "fighting for their lives in the ICUs right now,” pediatric nurse Sean Petty said, blaming a scarcity of equipment.
City officials have insisted there’s enough protective equipment for roughly the next week, though they’re worried for the weeks after.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city delivered 200,000 N95 masks to hospitals Friday, with 800,000 more to come Saturday, along with loads of less-protective surgical masks and other gear. The United Nations mission on Saturday donated 250,000 face masks to the city, with the U.S. mission to the U.N. helping to facilitate the gift.
The city hospital system’s president, Dr. Mitchell Katz, said at a news conference Friday that staffers working with coronavirus patients could conserve supplies of N95 masks by wearing one throughout their shifts, overlaid with surgical masks changed more frequently.
Petty said policies on protective equipment were being driven by shortages, not science.
“We will not let any health official or government official say that we have enough” protective equipment, he said, “until every health care worker has an N95 for every time they interact with a COVID-19 patient.”
For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.
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FELLED BY VIRUS:
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn announced that the virus had taken the life of the Rev. Jorge Ortiz-Garay, 49, a pastor of St. Brigid’s Church in Wyckoff Heights, Brooklyn.
Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio called his death “a sad day and a tremendous loss for the Diocese of Brooklyn."
DiMarzio added that Ortiz-Garay, who coordinated the diocese's ministry to Mexican immigrants, “was a great priest, beloved by the Mexican people and a tireless worker for all of the faithful in Brooklyn and Queens."
New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea announced the death of a third department employee, Detective Cedric Dixon, a 23-year veteran who worked in Harlem.
“We have lost three members of our family in a little over 48 hours. I cannot begin to describe what we are feeling,” Shea said Saturday.
The two previous department deaths were of a civilian employee in a roll call office and a department janitor.
New York City Correction Officer Quinsey Simpson on Friday became the first correction officer to die from the coronavirus, according to the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association.
Simpson had been in the Department of Correction for 18 years and worked at Rikers Island.
“His tragic death from this invisible disease has left our hearts broken,” COBA President Elias Husamudeen said.
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MTA CHAIRMAN TESTS POSITIVE FOR COVID-19
The chairman and chief executive officer of the The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Pat Foye, has tested positive for the virus.
The MTA said Foye learned Saturday of the positive test and was isolating at home and feeling well.
The MTA operates the city’s subways and buses in addition to the Long Island Rail Road and MetroNorth rail systems.
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MANUAL AIR MASKS
As the state continues scrambling to try to amass 30,000 ventilators ahead of a projected mid-to-late-April peak in coronavirus cases, Cuomo bluntly illustrated the alternative: masks with manually operated air bags.
He said the state has bought 3,000 of them, has ordered 4,000 more and is considering training National Guard personnel to operate them. It entails pumping the bulb-like bag by hand -- 24 hours a day for every patient in need.
“If we have to turn to this device on any large-scale basis, that is not an acceptable situation,” Cuomo said, “so we go back to finding the ventilators.”
The federal government has sent over 4,000 ventilators to the state and New York City this week.
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
— A Navy hospital ship is due to arrive Monday in New York City as part of efforts to increase the number of hospital beds available.
— Health officials warned of the potential spread of the virus in prisons and jails.
— Retirement communities also continued to cause concern, with one Long Island complex reporting seven deaths from the coronavirus in less than two weeks.
— Drivers with New York license plates are being pulled over by Rhode Island State Police so that National Guard officials can collect contact information and inform them of a mandatory, 14-day quarantine.
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Thompson reported from Buffalo, New York. Associated Press journalists Julie Walker in New York and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed.
ARTICLES BY CAROLYN THOMPSON
Kathy Hochul to be 1st female NY governor after Cuomo leaves
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — As New York's lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochul has spent years on the road as the friendly face of the administration, visiting the far-flung coffee shops and factory floors of each of the state's 62 counties for countless ribbon-cutting ceremonies and civic cheerleading events.
Kathy Hochul to be 1st female NY governor after Cuomo leaves
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — As New York's lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochul has spent years on the road as the friendly face of the administration, visiting the far-flung coffee shops and factory floors of each of the state's 62 counties for countless ribbon-cutting ceremonies and civic cheerleading events.
Kathy Hochul to be 1st female NY governor after Cuomo leaves
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — As New York's lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochul has spent years on the road as the friendly face of the administration, visiting the far-flung coffee shops and factory floors of each of the state's 62 counties for countless ribbon-cutting ceremonies and civic cheerleading events.