Deborah Birx, coronavirus response coordinator, speaks as U.S. President Donald Trump, left, listens during a Coronavirus Task Force news conference in the briefing room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, March 20, 2020.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Members of the White House coronavirus task force urged those leaving New York City to self-isolate and monitor themselves carefully for 14-days in order to stop the spread of COVID-19 during a press briefing on Tuesday.
“For anyone in the New York metropolitan area who has traveled, our task force is encouraging you to monitor your temperature, be sensitive to symptoms. And we are asking anyone who has traveled out of the New York City metropolitan area to anywhere else in the country to self isolate for 14 days,” Vice President Mike Pence, the task force chair, said.
Deborah Birx, the task force coordinator, and Anthony Fauci, another task force member and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the precaution was necessary given the high rate of infections in the nation’s most populous city.
Birx said that the 14 days should start based on the time that the individual left New York. She said that cases were already springing up in Long Island suggesting that infected individuals had left the city.
Cornavirus cases have been doubling approximately every three days in New York and have surpassed 25,000, with more than 3,000 people needing to be hospitalized, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The state projects it could need as many as 140,000 hospital beds within two to three weeks.
“It’s a very serious situation and they have suffered terribly through no fault of their own, but what we are seeing now is that understandably people want to get out of New York,” Fauci said at Tuesday’s briefing. “They’re going to Florida. They’re going to Long Island. They’re going to different places.”
“That’s about eight to 10 times more than in other areas, which means when they go to another place, for their own safety, they’ve got to be careful, monitor themselves,” Fauci said. “If they get sick, bring it to the attention of a physician, get tested. Also, the idea of self-isolating for two weeks will be very important.”
Correction: This story was updated to correctly attribute a quote to Vice President Mike Pence.
This is breaking news. Check back for updates.