Coronavirus: Troops sent to New York ‘containment zone’

NEW YORK: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced one-mile (1.6km) coronavirus “containment zone” around a community north of New York City, BBC reported.

New Rochelle has seen “probably the largest cluster” of US cases, Mr Cuomo said at a news conference on Tuesday.

The state will deploy National Guard troops to clean schools in the city and deliver food to any quarantined individuals.

New York state has 173 active coronavirus cases, the most in the US.

Of these cases, 108 are in Westchester County, where New Rochelle is located. New York City, which is located around 25 miles (40km) south of New Rochelle, has 36 confirmed cases of the virus in its population of eight million people.

Mr Cuomo said there will no travel restrictions in the small city, but large meeting points in the area will be closed.

Schools, gathering places and businesses in the virus hot spot will be closed for two weeks.

There were 804 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the US as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, which is tracking the outbreak.

Twenty-eight people have died as a result of the virus – 23 in Washington state, two in California, two in Florida and one in New Jersey.

“It is a dramatic action, but it is the largest cluster in the country, and this is literally a matter of life and death,” Mr Cuomo said, adding that numbers of cases were “going up unabated” in New Rochelle.

“You’re not containing people. You’re containing facilities.”

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