President Donald Trump on Saturday night backed off a daylong threat to lock down NYC and the tri-state area — a proposal that had thrown three governors for a loop.
“A quarantine will not be necessary,” Trump wrote in a series of tweets Saturday night, reasoning that a travel advisory would suffice.
“On the recommendation of the White House CoronaVirus Task Force, and upon consultation with the Governor’s (sic) of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, I have asked the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] to issue a strong Travel Advisory, to be administered by the Governors, in consultation with the Federal Government,” Trump tweeted.
Trump had told reporters outside the White House earlier Saturday that he was considering a regional lockdown to stop the spread of the disease, to the dismay of the tri-state’s governors.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said he and Trump spoke just a day before, on Friday, and the idea wasn’t brought up.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he wouldn’t even know how such a lockdown would be instituted.
“I don’t know how that could be legally enforceable and from a medical point of view don’t know what you would be accomplishing, but I can tell you I don’t even like the sound of it,” he told reporters Saturday..
He appeared on CNN later, where he likened the concept to starting a “Civil War,” and called it “preposterous.”
New York is the epicenter of the country’s coronavirus outbreak, with more than 52,400 reported cases as of Saturday night. Most of the patients, more than 30,700, are located in New York City.
New Jersey has the second-most cases in the country, reporting more than 11,000 positive tests.