Coronavirus in New York: 4000 people in quarantine with dozens of cases confirmed

'The number of people who will be infected will continue to increase. It is going to be dozens and dozens and dozens'

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that there are now 33 confirmed cases of coronavirus in New York state, with five people hospitalised.

The additional cases are all connected to the lawyer from Westchester County, who was admitted to hospital earlier in the week.

Among those that tested positive are the rabbi of the Young Israel synagogue in New Rochelle, who also teaches at Yeshiva University in Washington Heights. He was already in self-quarantine. The family of the lawyer attended services at the synagogue, and the elder son is a student at Yeshiva.

Given the “community spread” nature of the cluster in Westchester County, Governor Cuomo said at earlier press conference on Wednesday that he expects many more cases.

“There are going to be hundreds [of cases] in Westchester,” the governor said. “The number of people who will be infected will continue to increase. It is going to be dozens and dozens and dozens.”

In an attempt to prevent the further spread of the virus, the governor also said that 4,000 people across the state are in quarantine as a precaution — 2,700 in New York City, 1,000 in Westchester, and 70 in Nassau County.

Of that total, 44 people are in mandatory quarantine, including 33 in Westchester, nine in NYC and one in Nassau County.

Among the new confirmed cases are a man in his 50s living in Manhattan who has mild symptoms, and a 42-year-old man in Uniondale, Nassau County, who is hospitalised.

Two other New York City residents confirmed to have the virus are a man in his 40s and a woman in her 80s, both are in a critical condition in hospital and have pre-existing conditions —the man has respiratory issues said to be related to smoking and vaping, and the issues related to her age.

Meanwhile, Colorado, Indiana, Maryland, Nevada and New Jersey have reported their first cases of coronavirus as President Donald Trump yet again erroneously claimed that the spread of the virus had been “stopped”.

Speaking at the White House after signing the $8.3 billion emergency bill to counter the spread of the virus, Mr Trump urged people to be calm and said: “It will go away.”

“In terms of cases, it’s very, very few because we have been very strong at the borders.” He added: “This came unexpectedly, it came out of China, we closed it down, we stopped it, it was a very early shut down.”

In reality, the number of US cases now stands at 231 in 22 states. This grew by almost 70 cases on Thursday and 35 on Wednesday, according to figures from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), state and local health agencies, and hospitals, collated by The New York Times. The total number of dead has held steady at 14, one in California, and 13 in Washington state.

The uncertainty caused by the coronavirus crisis continues to roil markets, which closed on Friday after a third turbulent week as traders attempt to assess how bad the economic fallout will be, and how long it will last.

Bond yields fell to more record lows as investors continued to demand safety and unload stocks. The price of oil fell 10%, its worst drop in more than five years.

Not even a buoyant jobs report could steady the Dow Jones, which closed at 25,864.78, down 1 per cent on the day, having clawed back some of its earlier losses in the last hour of trading. It was only 12 February when the market peaked at 29,551.42 points.