Coronavirus: Trump considers enforceable quarantine in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut
Donald Trump is considering quarantining America’s largest city, as the situation in virus-riddled New York rapidly deteriorates.
US President Donald Trump said he is considering an “enforceable quarantine” in New York, New Jersey and parts of Connecticut and may make a decision as soon as later Saturday, as the nation’s largest city quickly becomes an epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We might not have to do it, but there’s a possibility that sometime today we’ll do a quarantine,” Mr. Trump told reporters in Washington before heading to Norfolk, Va., where he saw off a navy hospital ship heading for New York.
He said the quarantine could last around two weeks, but provided few details beyond saying the measure wouldn’t affect trade or “people such as truckers from outside the New York area who are making deliveries or simply transiting through.” He also suggested the measures he is eyeing would only affect those seeking to travel out of those states, rather than within them.He said a more formal announcement could come soon.
If any quarantine restricted people’s movements across state lines, it would represent one of the toughest measures the federal government has taken yet to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Mr. Trump has already blocked flights from China and much of Europe and asked Americans to adhere to social-distancing recommendations, but the stay-home measures that affect people most deeply have been ordered by governors.
Mr. Trump floated the idea of quarantining New York City and its surroundings as the hospital system there strained from a flood of coronavirus patients and other states began launching measures to keep out New Yorkers.
New York City alone has more than 23,000 cases, nearly a quarter of all the cases in the country. Overall, New York State leads the country in infections, with 52,318 confirmed cases and 728 deaths as of Saturday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during an afternoon briefing.
Mr. Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, both said a quarantine didn’t come up during separate phone calls both men had recently with Mr. Trump. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, said he hadn’t spoken to the president about the quarantine idea yet. Mr. Cuomo questioned whether it would be effective.
“I don’t even know what that means,” Mr. Cuomo said in response to a question about Mr. Trump’s comments on a quarantine. “I don’t know how that could be legally enforceable, and from a medical point of view I don’t know what you would be accomplishing.”
All three governors have already ordered all non-essential businesses in the state to close and called for residents to stay home. Essential services like hospitals, grocery stores and pharmacies remain open under the order, and residents can still go outside for exercise and to obtain groceries.
They each said their moves already represent aggressive action against the virus’s spread.
“Until further notified we are going to keep doing exactly what we are doing,” said Mr. Murphy, whose state has 11,124 coronavirus cases as of Saturday afternoon and 140 deaths.
“I look forward to speaking to the President directly about his comments and any further enforcement actions, because confusion leads to panic,” Mr. Lamont said in a statement.
Concerns have mounted in other parts of the country about people leaving the New York City area and possibly spreading coronavirus. Earlier this week, administration officials urged anyone leaving New York to self-isolate for 14 days.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order on Monday directing travellers from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to self-isolate for that period, and said violations of the order would amount to a criminal offence. Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo on Thursday issued a similar order. Mr. Trump said on Saturday he had spoken to Mr. DeSantis.
“They’re having problems down in Florida. A lot of New Yorkers going down,” Mr. Trump said.
Wendy Parmet, a public-health law professor at Northeastern University in Boston, said the executive branch has broad powers to protect the public health. Restrictions on interstate travel and commerce should, constitutionally, be put in place by the federal government, not individual states, she said.
“The situation that’s been developing in the last few days feels like the Framers’ nightmare,” she said, referring to states imposing quarantines on travellers from other states.
“We’re not supposed to have Florida saying drop dead to New York … States can’t set up borders. We have a Constitution.”
She said whether the president’s plan to quarantine the tri-state area passed constitutional muster would depend on the details of how it was done, and would have to be grounded in science about the public health.
“The courts are deferential to public health powers in times of emergency,” she said.
Mr. Trump’s comments overshadowed his visit to Norfolk, where he sent the hospital ship, USNS Comfort, on its way to New York to help take pressure off the city’s healthcare system.
Standing in front of the ship, Mr. Trump said it was “stocked to the brim with equipment and medicines and everything you can think of.” “This great ship behind me is a 70,000-ton message of hope and solidarity to the people of New York,” he said. He reminded Americans that anyone leaving New York must self-isolate for 14 days.
Also on Saturday, Mr. Trump approved a disaster declaration for Michigan and Massachusetts.
The two states now have the fifth- and sixth-most infections in the U.S., respectively, according to statistics compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The disaster designation, which was also extended to the island territory of Guam, makes local governments eligible for additional federal funding.
Mr. Cuomo said New York would move its presidential primary from April 28 to June 23, to stop people from congregating while voting. Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island have also postponed balloting.
The U.S. added more than 15,000 cases of the COVID-19 disease, pushing the total past 104,000 on Saturday, with a surge of cases in New York amid increased testing.
The growth outstripped that of Italy and China, the countries with the second- and third-most infections, where confirmed cases stayed around 86,000 and 81,000, respectively, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins.
As a result, the number of confirmed infections globally has more than doubled over the past week to more than 600,000. The death toll from the pathogen rose to more than 28,000 on Saturday, with roughly one-third of the fatalities in Italy, data from Johns Hopkins showed.
Italy’s death toll from the virus on Friday rose by 919 to 9,134, the highest daily tally on record. Total infections there rose to 86,498, a 7% increase from the previous day.
Since it was first detected in central China three months ago, governments around the world have ramped up efforts to limit people’s movement and began imposing wide-ranging closures on businesses, restaurants and schools domestically in recent weeks.
Overlapping travel bans and lockdowns have hammered businesses and led to millions of job losses. U.S. unemployment claims spiked to more than three million this week. There are warnings of a deep recession this year in trade bellwether Singapore.
Mr. Trump has indicated that he would like some Americans to begin returning to work by Easter, April 12.