New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday extended until April 15 the NY State on Pause order, which closes all non-essential businesses and bans non-essential social gatherings.
The expansion of the order means that the ban on social gatherings will include Easter on April 12 as well as Passover which will be celebrated between April 8 and 16.
“We’re going to need another two weeks,” the governor said during his daily briefing on the coronavirus pandemic. He added that the order would be re-evaluated every two weeks.
"It’s hard. But on the flip side, I say look what happened in New Rochelle. Those were religious gatherings and brought hundreds of people together, which was beautiful, but made a lot of people ill,” Cuomo continued, referring to the Westchester County city that was placed in quarantine on March 3 after a series of COVID-19 cases emerged following gatherings at a local synagogue.
A lawyer from that synagogue was hospitalized with COVID-19. Following that, some people who were friends or relatives of the lawyer tested positive for coronavirus. These included the rabbi of the synagogue.
Cuomo on Sunday acknowledged that cancelling services, ceremonies and special events surrounding the holidays was a drastic measure.
“Density is the enemy here. You worship the way you can, but the gatherings are just not a good idea,” he said.
New York remains by far the state hardest-hit by the coronavirus outbreak. As of Sunday afternoon, 59,513 people had tested positive for COVID-19 in New York State. 8,503 patients are currently hospitalized, 2,037 in Intensive Care Units.
The death toll for New York State stood at 965 at the time of Cuomo’s press conference on Sunday.
On Saturday night, the death toll in the United States from the novel coronavirus topped 2,000, with the death toll doubling in about 48 hours.
On Friday, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States reached 100,040, the highest number in the world.
While New York is considered a “coronavirus hotspot”, President Donald Trump on Saturday night decided against calling for a quarantine over the state and other similar “hotspots”.
Trump instead directed that a "strong Travel Advisory" be issued to stem the spread of the outbreak.