Trump backs off New York city quarantine

Donald Trump, seen returning to the White House on Saturday (DM)

President Donald Trump has said he will not attempt to quarantine New York and instead order a travel advisory, after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the proposal to the limit the spread of coronavirus would be tantamount to a ‘federal declaration of war.’

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued the advisory late on Saturday, saying: ‘Due to extensive community transmission of COVID -19 in the area, CDC urges residents of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut to refrain from non-essential domestic travel for 14 days effective immediately.’  

The advisory does not apply to employees of critical infrastructure industries, ‘including but not limited to trucking, public health professionals, financial services, and food supply,’ the CDC said.  

The agency said that the governors of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut will have ‘full discretion’ to implement the advisory.  

On Saturday night, Trump backed down from his threat to impose a quarantine on the Tri-state area.  

On Saturday night, confirmed cases of coronavirus hit 123,788 and deaths surpassed 2,100 nationwide, with 672 deaths in New York City alone.  

Trump had said earlier on Saturday that he was considering quarantining ‘heavily infected’ New York, and parts of Connecticut and New Jersey, in a desperate effort to slow the spread of coronavirus.   

Within hours, Cuomo blasted the proposal in strong terms. ‘If you start walling off areas all across the country it would just be totally bizarre, counter-productive, anti-American, anti-social,’ said Cuomo in an interview with CNN on Saturday evening.