ing basketball.
The governor also de-
fended New York’s request
for 30,000 ventilators, call-
ing it a number produced
by health experts. He said
the price of the device has
so a re d by n e a r l y 1 0 0 %
since the crisis erupted.
Preparing New Yorkers
for a long fight, he re-
minded people the state
has only been dealing with
coronavirus for less than
four weeks. The first case
in the state was identified
2 7 days ago and public
schools closed 10 days ago.
“It seems like forever,”
he said. “Keep it in per-
spective in this disorient-
ing time.”
Cuomo conceded that he
was among the millions of
people detached from the
familiar pattern of daily
routines.
“You know how I knew it
was Saturday?” the gover-no r s a i d. “ B e c a u s e m y
alarm clock said Saturday.
It’s literally one day blend-
ing into another.”
Th e g o v e r n o r u r g e d
Americans to seek to find a
“silver lining” in the crisis
by cherishing time with
loved ones. He spoke wist-
fully of long conversations
with his elderly mother
and his daughters.
“You have the advantage
of time,” he said. “Those
moments are priceless. You
will not have them ever
again in life.”
In another piece of good
news, Trump approved
four new sites for field hos-
pitals in all the boroughs
except Manhattan, with
some of the new facilities
designated for “COVID -
only” patients. The Navy
hospital ship Comfort is
also expected to arrive in
the city on Monday.
Tr u m p l a t e r t we e t e dabout his possible co-
ronavirus lock down of
parts of the Northeast, re-
ferring to the tri-state
areas as “developing hot
spots,” with QUARAN-
TINE spelled in capital
letters.
Murphy, who spoke Fri-
day with with Trump in a
conversation where quar-
antine was never men-
ti o n e d , s a i d h i s s t a t e
planned to stay the course
despite the president’s re-
marks.
“Until further notified
we’re going to keep doing
exactly what we’re doing,
because we believe the
data and the facts are on
our side,” said Murphy.
Trump also threatened
to sue Rhode Island if re-
ports were true that the
state was stopping cars
with New York plates to
enforce their own quaran-
tine rule.QQUUAARRAANNTTIINNEE
aarreeaa aafftteerr CCuuoommoo ssqquuaawwkkss
Gov. Cuomo (left) quickly pushed
back Saturday on President
Trump’s idea to quarantine much
of the tri-state area. Trump later
dropped the idea and a ‘travel
advisory” was issued in the
evening that asked residents of
New York, New Jersey and
Connecticut refrain from
nonessential domestic travel for
1 4 days.CORONAVIRUS
DAILY NEWSNYDailyNews.com Sunday, March 29, 2020 3
Acity map suggests what
many New Yorkers al-
re a d y s u s p e c t e d : C o -
ronavirus is hitting the
poorest neighborhoods
hardest.
The map (left) shows
the biggest share of peo-
ple testing positive for the
de a d l y v i r u s a re i n a
swath of the city’s poorer
neighborhoods, which
stretches in a boomerang
sh a p e f r o m c e n t r a l
Br o o k l y n t h r o u g h
Queens and out to the
Rockaways.
Achunk of the South
Br o n x i s a l s o b e i n g
slammed with more than
half the patients testing
positive.
Well-heeled neighbor-
hoods like Riverdale, Bay-
side, Bay Ridge and most
of Manhattan are faring
relatively much better, with
less than 40% testing pos-
itive for COVID-19.
Anti-poverty advocates
say that the findings likely
reflect the fact that poor and
working-class people have
been far less able to abide by
social-distancing rules.
They are also less likely
to have jobs that allow them
to work remotely like bet-
ter-off New Yorkers.
The map was released by
the city after Mayor de Bla-
sio was hit with questions
ab o u t w hy t h e n a t i o n ’s
hardest-hit city has so few
resources documenting the
impact of the virus.
Despite its important
broad-brush conclusions,
the map was criticized by
some for its confusing met-
rics. The city’s Department
of Health created the map
using United Hospital Fund
Neighborhood boundaries,
wh i c h c u t a c ro s s l a rg e
chunks of boroughs and
ma y c o m b i n e a d j a c e n t
neighborhoods with dra-
matically different demo-
graphics.
Neighborhood activists
are demanding much more
granular figures to help
New Yorkers figure out how
the pandemic has affected
their blocks and immediate
neighborhoods.Map: Bug
worst in
poor areas
BY DAVE GOLDINER
NEW YORK DAILY NEWSNew York City’s coronavirus
daily death toll spiked Saturday
as a shocking 222 succumbed to
the deadly virus — nearly triple
the toll from the previous 24-
hour period.
As of 4 p.m. Saturday, co-
ronavirus had taken 672 lives in
New York City, up sharply from a
total tally of 450 on Friday after-
noon.
The 222 who perished in just
2 4 hours on Friday and Saturday
marked a stunning 161% rise
from the 85 reported dead in the
2 4 hours that ended at 4 p.m.
Friday.
The five boroughs now ac-
count for about a third of the total
national death toll from the killer
pandemic.
Some 155 New Yorkers were
reported dead of the virus in the
six hours between the city’s first
update of Saturday at 10 am and
the late afternoon, a stunning
sign of how quickly the city has
become the global epicenter of
the virus.
The city reported 30,765 cases
on Saturday afternoon, up 15%
from 26,697 just the night before.
Queens remains the worst-hit
borough with 9,831 cases, 32% of
the city’s total.
Nicholas Williams,
Dave Goldiner and Anna SandersNYC daily death
toll rises sharply