Coronavirus: Trump decides against quarantine of New York after governor Cuomo warns it would ‘paralyse the economy’
- The United States now has the highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the world
- Trump had said ‘heavily infected’ New Yorkers were a threat to other states like Florida
US President Donald Trump decided against imposing a broad two-week lockdown on New York and its neighbours after a strong resistance from local political leaders and warnings of the panic it could spark.
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), however, late on Saturday advised residents of the region not to travel except for essential purposes.
“A quarantine will not be necessary,” Trump tweeted, about eight hours after he stunned the New York metropolitan region, the epicentre of the US coronavirus outbreak, with a proposal to place it under quarantine to prevent residents from leaving.
A lockdown of that type would have been the harshest measure yet taken by the US government to slow the spread of the disease.
Trump had indicated earlier that he was responding to worries in other states, particularly Florida, that travellers from the greater New York City area could spread Covid-19 in their communities.
He told reporters that “heavily infected” New Yorkers were a threat to Florida, a popular southern holiday destination for people in the northeast.