New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday that residents of the nation’s largest city should be prepared for the possibility of a shelter-in-place order within days.
De Blasio stressed that no decision had been made yet, but that he wants city and state officials to make a decision within 48 hours, given the fast spread of the coronavirus.
“New Yorkers should be prepared right now for the possibility of a shelter-in-place order,” de Blasio said at a news briefing.
Such an order would represent a dramatic escalation of restrictions on the city of more than 8 million that has more than 800 coronavirus cases. They would be following the lead of officials in six San Francisco Bay-area counties, who issued a shelter-in-place order that went into effect Tuesday. That order requires nearly 7 million residents to stay inside and venture out only for food, medicine or exercise for three weeks.
