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NYC residents: Should they stay or should they go?
Mar 25, 2020 1:06 pm
Addy Baird reports for Buzzfeed that White House officials said March 24 that anyone who left New York City recently should self-isolate for 14 days. This comes as three counties -- Greene, Sullivan, and Delaware -- have pointedly told outsiders to stay out, while Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan has taken a much more welcoming tone. “Those are not our values,” he said. “Especially in a moment of challenging crisis, we’re supposed to all be in this together.” White House officials urged New York City residents to self-isolate. “Everybody who was in New York should be self-quarantining for the next 14 days to ensure the virus doesn’t spread to others, no matter where they have gone, whether it’s Florida, North Carolina, or out to far reaches of Long Island,” Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus coordinator, said at a press conference March 24. “We’re starting to see new cases across Long Island that suggest people have left the city. This will be very critical.” Dr. Anthony Fauci, another member of the White House coronavirus task force agreed. “What we’re seeing now is that, understandably, people want to get out of New York,” Fauci said. “We don’t want that to be another seeding point for the rest of the country, wherever they go.” Gov. Andrew Cuomo has pointed out that the virus does not respect any borders, and that patients from New York City may be sent to Hudson Valley facilities when hospitals in the city overflow. Read more about this story at Buzzfeed.