NYC Told to Prepare to ‘Shelter in Place’ With Coronavirus Cases on Track to Top 10,000 Next Week

BROOKLYN — New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says residents should prepare for a possible “shelter in place” order in the next 48 hours — and warns that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases could reach 10,000 by next week. But New York’s governor has denied that a lockdown is in the works.

There are currently 814 confirmed COVID-19 cases in New York City, which has quickly become the epicenter of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak in a matter of days. Of those confirmed cases, 124 patients are hospitalized, de Blasio said at a press conference Tuesday. Last Thursday, there were just 95 confirmed cases — though officials warned that as testing became more widespread, those numbers would shoot up rapidly.

On Monday night, six Bay Area counties issued shelter in place orders, meaning that residents are required to stay at home unless they’re engaging in “essential activities,” like seeking out medical care, buying groceries, caring for a sick family member in another residence, or walking a dog.

But de Blasio and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo appear to be at odds on whether a shelter in place order is needed at this stage. De Blasio first brought up the question of a shelter in place order during an appearance on CNN on Tuesday morning, and said it was a possibility.

READ: Coronavirus is about to shut down the Democratic Primary for months.

But then Gov. Cuomo, in a press conference hours later, seemed to contradict the mayor.

“We hear New York City is going to quarantine itself. That is not true,” Cuomo said. “We have no interest whatsoever, and no plan whatsoever, to quarantine any city.”

De Blasio, at his press conference Tuesday afternoon, doubled down on the possibility of a looming shelter in place order — and acknowledged that he and the governor were at odds on this particular issue. “It’s gotten to the point where a decision has to be made very soon,” de Blasio said.

Cuomo, again, refuted the mayor’s comments during a subsequent interview with NY1. “There’s not going to be any quarantine,” Cuomo said. “There’s not going to be any you-have-to-stay-in-your-house rule, that will just cause people to go somewhere else.”

So far, seven people have died in New York from COVID-19. The highest number of cases are in Manhattan (277), followed by Queens (248), Brooklyn (157), the Bronx (96), and Staten Island (36).