Troops sent to New York to contain coronavirus spread
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New York’s governor has announced that troops will be sent into a town north of the city in an attempt to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
The National Guard will deliver food to quarantined individuals in New Rochelle, where a one-mile (1.6km) “containment zone” will be enforced.
The area has seen “the largest cluster” of US cases, Andrew Cuomo said as he announced the measures.
There are at least 900 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the US so far.
New York state has 173 active cases, the most in the US, and 108 of them are in Westchester County where New Rochelle is located.
President Donald Trump called on the American people to ‘be calm’ and assured them that things are ‘really working out’ today during a press conference.
We’re prepared, and we’re doing a great job with it,” Mr Trump said. “So just stay calm. It’ll go away, just stay calm.”
The statements came during a meeting discussing possible plans and spending on coronavirus responses. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and economic adviser Larry Kudlow joined the president and vice president at the meeting.
China – where the virus was first detected – has seen a total of 80,754 confirmed cases and 3,136 deaths. But it recorded its lowest number of new infections, just 19, on Tuesday.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases surpassed 1,000 on Tuesday, with at least 31 people dead and federal officials reportedly scrambling to deal with the illness, which health experts have said will inevitably spread nationwide.
As cases of the mysterious illness continued to surge across the country, the nation’s top health officials said citizens need to begin preparing to face significant impacts to their daily lives.
Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a statement: “We would like the country to realise that as a nation, we can’t be doing the kinds of things we were doing a few months ago. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a state that has no cases or one case.”
