Westchester County Executive George Latimer said that Westchester public schools will be closed after he issues a declaration of emergency. As reported yesterday by the Business Journal, the declaration is expected to be issued tomorrow afternoon, March 16.
Latimer, while participating in a Sunday afternoon conference call with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and County Executives Laura Curran of Nassau and Steve Bellone of Suffolk, said that many school districts already will be closed tomorrow and Tuesday, having made decisions to use unused snow days for the closings.
Latimer said that his declaration of emergency will require all school districts in Westchester to close as of Wednesday and remain closed for a period of two weeks. He said that what happens after that will be determined according to the situation at the time.
Earlier on Sunday, Gov. Cuomo warned that the state”™s hospital system could be overwhelmed by serious coronavirus cases if efforts to slow the disease are ineffective. He said the Trump administration needs to “task the Army Corps of Engineers to expand hospital capacity.”
“The anticipated wave of new cases threatens to crash our heath care system and we need national action from the federal government to address the quickly evolving situation,” Cuomo said.
He said that there were plenty of dorm rooms on SUNY campuses available, but does not have the construction capability to transform them into facilities suitable for hospital beds and patients. He said that the federal government does have construction capabilities.
Cuomo said that while right now the facts do not warrant the “level of anxiety that is out there,” it is important to have a plan and facilities to handle a worst-case scenario should that arise.
He also expressed concern about a projected shortage of medical supplies and equipment, such as ventilators should there be an extreme number of COVID-19 cases.
Cuomo reported that there had been 729 confirmed cases in New York as of Sunday afternoon with 196 in Westchester. There were three deaths in New York state.
The geographic breakdown was:
Albany County: 8 (3 new)
Broome County: 1
Delaware County: 1
Dutchess County: 7 (3 new)
Erie County: 3
Greene County: 2 (2 new)
Herkimer County: 1
Monroe County: 2
Montgomery County: 1 (1 new)
Nassau County: 98 (5 new)
New York City: 329 (29 new)
Orange County: 6
Putnam County: 2 (2 new)
Rockland County: 13
Saratoga County: 3
Schenectady County: 2
Suffolk County: 47 (6 new)
Tioga County: 1
Tompkins County: 1
Ulster County: 5
Cuomo directed nonessential state employees in Westchester, Rockland, New York City, Suffolk and Nassau to work from home for two weeks.
He asked the state”™s Chief Judge Janet DiFiore to reduce density in the court system including limiting nonessential court proceedings.
Cuomo called on Trump, through the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to authorize the states to certify more COVID-19 testing labs and testing methods. He said this is necessary to help make tests more widely available to determine who has the disease so they can be isolated.
