New York joins California in locking down against the virus

New York state joined California, on Friday, in ordering nearly all residents to stay home, as governors watched with growing alarm as southern Europe buckled under the strain of the coronavirus outbreak.

“We’re going to close the valve, because the rate of increase in the number of cases portends a total overwhelming of our hospital system,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said as cases in the state climbed to more than 7,000.

Cuomo said he is directing all workers in non-essential businesses to stay home, and banning gatherings statewide. The move came after California, the nation’s most populous state, with some 40 million people, all but confined its population in the biggest lockdown in the US.

The increasingly drastic measures in the US came as gasping patients filled the wards of hospitals in Spain and Italy, and the global death toll surpassed 10,000, with the virus still multiplying and gaining footholds in new corners of the world.

The World Health Organization noted the epidemic’s dramatic speed.

“It took over three months to reach the first 10,000 confirmed cases, and only 12 days to reach the next 100,000,” the UN health agency said.

Countries frantically prepared for an onslaught of patients in the coming weeks.

AP