- The Washington Times - Tuesday, March 17, 2020

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday said he’s weighing a more restrictive “shelter in place” order for New York City in line with what some other jurisdictions have adopted as a response to the expanding coronavirus outbreak.

“We are absolutely considering that,” Mr. de Blasio said on CNN’s “New Day.” “Right now, we have taken a series of steps: Reduce the number of people who are circulating around, get people to telecommute, obviously social distancing, closing the schools which was particularly painful, closing the bars and restaurants.”

“But we’re going to look at all other options, and it could get to that, for sure — it could get to that for the whole country,” he said.

San Francisco and several California counties said that starting Tuesday, residents can only leave their homes for necessities for the next three weeks.

But Mr. de Blasio said even if that occurred, there would still be a need for a huge number of new hospital beds and medical capacity for affected people.

The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut on Monday announced that theaters, gyms, bars and restaurants would be closed as of 8 p.m. Monday, though food would still be available for take-out.

Mr. de Blasio said the bar and restaurant closures would last for “months.”

“My health commissioner said a week ago she believes it’ll go all the way to September,” the mayor said. “We don’t have a crystal ball. … No one can predict, but we need to have in our minds that this could be a crisis of at minimum several months just looking at the numbers trajectory right now. But it could take us well through the summer.”

Mr. de Blasio himself took some flak for trekking to the gym on Monday at a time when public officials were urging people to self-isolate and avoid crowds to try to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.

“I don’t get it, but we’ll move on with our lives. The gyms are all closed,” he said.

“Everyone is going to have to make sacrifice[s], but as our health commissioner said yesterday people still are in new ways … going to have to get exercise,” Mr. de Blasio said. “Whatever scenario, we’re going to tell people how to stay healthy.”

“It may be a walk; it may be a jog, but … socially distanced, until and unless we get to the point of literally ordering everyone indoors,” he continued. “Somehow people are going to have to stay healthy and sane through this.”

• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.

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