New York City Bill de Blasio on Sunday said he was ordering restaurants, bars and cafes to only sell food on a take-out or delivery basis. He also said he would order nightclubs, movie theaters, small theater houses, and concert venues to close.
"This is not a decision I make lightly," the mayor said in a written statement. "These places are part of the heart and soul of our city. They are part of what it means to be a New Yorker. But our city is facing an unprecedented threat, and we must respond with a wartime mentality."
Americans are waking up to a new reality as coronavirus spreads, with store shelves stripped bare of essentials, schools closed and millions of jobs in jeopardy as businesses temporarily shut their doors. New York City joined the nation's other major public school systems in calling off classes starting this week.
"We're learning from watching other countries," Trump said. "It's a very contagious virus."
Trump has faced criticism at home and abroad for sometimes downplaying the seriousness of the coronavirus and overstating his administration's ability to handle it.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert, said the United States was entering a new phase of coronavirus testing but tempered the president's optimism.
"The worst is yet ahead for us," Fauci said, a warning he has issued frequently in the past week. "It is how we respond to that challenge that is going to what the ultimate end point is going to be."
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that events with gatherings of 50 or more people over the next eight weeks be postponed or canceled.
The White House appealed to Americans not to hoard as the coronavirus spreads, reassuring them that grocery supply chains were strong.
Trump held a phone call on Sunday with 30 executives from grocery stores including Amazon.com Inc's Whole Foods, Target Corp, Costco Wholesale Corp and Walmart Inc, the White House said.
"Have a nice dinner, relax because there's plenty, but you don't have to buy the quantities," Trump said. "We're doing really, really well. A lot of good things are going to happen."
Democratic New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that schools in New York City, Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk counties would close from Monday, and he called on Trump to mobilize the Army Corps of Engineers to create more hospital beds.
Cuomo had been criticized for not closing schools as other states have done, given that New York has a large cluster of coronavirus cases.
A clinical trial to evaluate a vaccine designed to protect against coronavirus will begin on Monday, the Associated Press reported, citing an unnamed U.S. government official.
It would take a year to 18 months to fully validate any potential vaccine, the AP added, citing public health officials.
© 2024 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.