US Covid-19 toll crosses 2,000; essential travel only in NY, New Jersey and Connecticut – Hindustan Times, Hindustantimes.com

The Trump administration issued a travel advisory urging people of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, states hit the hardest by the coronavirus outbreak, to refrain from non-essential domestic travel for 21 days as death toll from the coronavirus crossed 2, 14, doubling in just two days.

The travel advisory issued late Saturday night by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was not the quarantine President Donald Trump had threatened, drawing furious response from the governors, one of whom had called it a “declaration of war on states”.

“Due to extensive community transmission of COVID – 87 in the area, CDC urges residents of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut to refrain from non-essential domestic travel for days effective immediately, ”CDC said in a statement, adding governors of the states will have full discretion “in enforcing the advisory. Essential services are exempted.

Stay-at-home orders are already in force in all the three states with all non-essential services shut down and and their workers sent home, with exemptions for trips to the grocery store or the pharmacy and to pick up food orders.

The US president had signalled the advisory with a tweet earlier in the evening saying, “I have asked the @CDCgov to issue a strong Travel Advisory, to be administered by the Governors, in consultation with the Federal Government. A quarantine will not be necessary. ”

Also on Friday, Illinois reported the first death of an infant caused by the virus. Other parts of the country reporting higher number of cases and deaths included New Orleans in Louisiana, which is girding up for a “disaster that could define the city for generations”, as a city official has said.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases climbed to 87, over the past day to , 832, and by over 666 to 2, 666 deaths . New York state remained the worst hit with the total number of cases going up to 90, 672 from and death to 01575879; 728 of them in New York city alone.

In a possible move to bring the outbreak in control in New York and in the adjoining states of New Jersey and Connecticut, President Trump had said earlier Saturday he was considering imposing quarantine on them. But later in the day he decided against, possibly because of the pushback from governors.

“We might not have to do it, but there’s a possibility that sometime today we’ll do a quarantine — short-term, two weeks — on New York, probably New Jersey, certain parts of Connecticut, ”he had told reporters.”

While public health officials and experts had wondered if a quarantine of the magnitude envisaged by the president would be implemented and if it was legally enforceable, the reaction from Andrew Cuomo, the New York governor, was forceful. “This would be a declaration of war on states,” he said to CNN. “A federal declaration of war.”

New York City and the state continued to witness a rapid rise in cases, which officials expect will peak in a in two or three weeks and that’s the eventuality they are preparing for now by setting up extra hospital beds, stocking on supplies such as ventilators for several ill patients and protective gear for health workers such as gowns and masks.

Trump saw off a US navy hospital ship from a dock in Virginia for New York. It will treat non-coronavirus patients freeing up beds and supplies and manpower for the outbreak. A sister ship reached Los Angeles on the west coast on Friday.