The Wall Street Journal - 12.03.2020

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. ***** Thursday, March 12, 2020 |A10A

A woman waited to use an ATM on Wednesday as a crew cleaned a bank in New Rochelle. The city must limit large public gatherings to curb the spread of the virus.

SETH WENIG/ASSOCIATED PRESS

health lab in Albany is working

on a test to check for antibodies

for the coronavirus, believing

that it was spreading in New

York earlier than late February.

“We’re not in a position to

rely on the CDC or the FDA to

manage this testing protocol,”

said Mr. Cuomo, adding that the

CDC “was a terrible bottleneck.”

Up until a week and a half

ago, all testing for suspected

coronavirus cases took place in

Atlanta at the CDC laboratory.

noon. The biggest cluster was

tied to people who attended

services last month at Young Is-

rael of New Rochelle synagogue.

Some business owners ex-

pressed frustration that many

people outside the city of

roughly 79,000 incorrectly as-

sumed they couldn’t enter it.

Mario Salvo, manager of

Deanna’s Pizzeria in the zone,

said the governor confused

people by not specifying im-

mediately and clearly that

containment barred parties

and big events but didn’t

equal a quarantine.

“We’re open and we’re still

delivering pizza,” Mr. Salvo

said, though orders have

slowed. “Everything was being

blown out of proportion.”

Leaders of large organiza-

tions fielded phone calls and

scrambled to communicate new

rules. At the Beth El Synagogue

Center, for example, Rabbi Da-

vid Schuck said his congregants

are resilient and would fulfill

religious obligations through

video conferencing. “We are not

permitted to have more than 10

people at a time in a shiva

home,” he said by email, allud-

ing to Jewish mourning practice

where people visit the family of

the deceased. “This inability for

the community to rally around

those who are grieving losses is

incredibly challenging.”

The containment policy

closed nine schools in the zone,

including public schools in the

adjacent district of Tuckahoe,

which shut Wednesday after-

noon, and private schools.

Three of the public schools in

the New Rochelle district of

about 11,000 students were

closed for two weeks starting

on Wednesday morning, includ-

ing New Rochelle High School.

To Kelly Stineman, a

mother of three living in the

zone, closing only some dis-

trict schools didn’t make sense

because children take buses to

attend schools all over town.

Only one of her children’s

three schools had closed.

“In my neighborhood, half

the kids are home and the

other half are in school,” Ms.

Stineman said. “It should be

across the board. That would

be more of a precaution.”

A representative for the

district didn’t respond to a re-

quest for comment, but its of-

ficials have said they are fol-

lowing state guidance. Across

New York City, Westchester

and Bergen County, N.J., many

private schools opted to close

to prevent infection.

Ethan Turkewitz, a 17-year-

old senior who lives in the

zone and attends New Rochelle

High School, said he was dis-

appointed to shift to online

learning in the middle of some

class projects, and his tennis

team is missing practice.

Ethan’s father, attorney Eric

Turkewitz, said life was going

on largely as usual, except for

the news crews and the lack of

cars at the synagogue next to

his house. He had been to gro-

cery stores with plenty of food

on shelves. “Life goes on,” he

said.

Teenagers missed sports

practice. A pizza place was

slinging fewer pies. And some

residents of the New Rochelle

area said Wednesday that New

York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s cre-

ation of a containment zone to

slow the spread of coronavirus

was a showy maneuver that

might not have much effect.

The governor announced on

Tuesday that for two weeks

starting Thursday, a swath of

the Westchester suburb must

limit large public gatherings.

Residents can still go in and

out of the roughly 3-mile area,

and shops and restaurants can

remain open.

“It’s a political farce,” said

Mark McCarthy, a 66-year-old

retiree walking his Bernedoo-

dle, Fisher, near his home in

the zone Wednesday. “I think

it’s so the governor can dem-

onstrate some action, but I’m

not sure how meaningful it is.”

Mr. Cuomo said it is crucial

to reduce high-density gather-

ings to curb the contagion in a

state that had 216 confirmed

cases as of Wednesday after-

BYLESLIEBRODY

Containment Zone Draws Criticism

Some residents say

Cuomo’s plan to halt the

virus has been ‘blown

out of proportion’

St. Patrick’s Day

Parade Postponed

The New York City St. Pat-

rick’s Day Parade has been post-

poned over concerns about the

spread of the new coronavirus,

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said

Wednesday.

The parade, which had never

been canceled in its 258-year

history, was scheduled for Tues-

day and was expected to draw

hundreds of thousands of spec-

tators along its route on Man-

hattan’s Fifth Avenue. But Mr.

Cuomo and the parade organiz-

ers announced late Wednesday

that the parade would take

place at an undetermined later

date.

“While I know the parade or-

ganizers did not make this deci-

sion lightly, public health experts

agree that one of the most ef-

fective ways to contain the

spread of the virus is to limit

large gatherings and close con-

tacts, and I applaud the parade’s

leadership for working coopera-

tively with us,” Mr. Cuomo said

in a statement.

Parade chairman Sean Lane

said he looked forward to cele-

brating the parade at a later date.

Earlier Wednesday, Mayor Bill

de Blasio said that he had “real

concerns” about the parade.

The number of confirmed

coronavirus cases in the state

has reached 216, including 52 in

the city, according to state offi-

cials.

Other events in the city, in-

cluding the New York City half-

marathon and the New York In-

ternational Auto Show, have

been canceled or postponed be-

cause of concerns over the

spread of the virus.

Mr. de Blasio said in a televi-

sion interview Wednesday

morning that his administration

was discussing options with the

organizers of the St. Patrick’s

Day Parade.

“We have to really think

about this one because it’s obvi-

ously a beloved event, an impor-

tant event,” the mayor said.

—Katie Honan

Since the beginning of March,

the state has conducted its

own tests at its laboratory.

Tests have been run for

1,983 people at labs in New

York, a state official said.

As of this week, several

commercial labs and the lab

for Northwell Health, the

state’s largest health-care sys-

tem, have come online to per-

form the testing. Northwell

Health will set up a coronavi-

rus testing facility in New Ro-

chelle, N.Y., the Westchester

suburb at the epicenter of the

state’s outbreak.

The Northwell facility would

help to ease both the bottle-

neck in taking samples from

people suspected of having the

coronavirus, speed up the lab

work and keep people out of

the emergency room, said Mark

Jarrett, chief quality officer

and deputy chief medical offi-

cer for Northwell. The satellite

testing site could be repeated

around the region, he said.

Officials have advised New

Yorkers to call a physician or

New York City’s 311 line to in-

quire about testing, but the

availability of testing—which

involves swabbing a person’s

nose or throat—is still narrow.

Testing is prioritized for

people who came in close con-

tact with a person who tested

positive or had traveled to a

county that is experiencing a

large outbreak, people who are

in quarantine and starting to

experience symptoms, and

people who are seriously ill

and tested negative for other

viruses. Outside of those pa-

rameters, say health-care ex-

ecutives, getting a test re-

mains difficult.

—Jimmy Vielkind

contributed to this article.

New York will begin contract-

ing with private labs to increase

the number of people tested for

the novel coronavirus, Gov. An-

drew Cuomo said Wednesday.

For weeks leading up to the

first case of coronavirus, state

and local officials urged the fed-

eral government and the Cen-

ters for Disease Control and

Prevention to open testing ca-

pacity at several public labs, and

to permit them to do testing au-

tomatically instead of by hand.

Officials have said that quick

testing would help to contain

the spread of the coronavirus.

As of Wednesday, there were

216 confirmed cases of corona-

virus in New York, with 121

cases in Westchester County.

Mr. Cuomo said he has spo-

ken with 28 private labs state-

wide. He said the state’s public-

BYMELANIEGRAYCEWEST

New York Will Use Private Labs to Expand Testing

A technician conducts Covid-19 tests at a Northwell Health lab.

ANDREW THEODORAKIS/GETTY IMAGES

GREATER NEW YORK

The state and city universi-
ties of New York will shift to a
distance-learning model for
the remainder of the semester
in response to the coronavirus,
Gov. Andrew Cuomo an-
nounced Wednesday.
Starting on March 19, in-
person classes at the nation’s
largest comprehensive public
higher-education system will
be restricted, state officials
said, and students will be en-
couraged to return or stay at
their homes.
However, dormitories will
remain open and exceptions
would be made for instruction
that must occur in person, in-
cluding laboratory-based
classes.
Many graduation ceremo-
nies likely will be canceled, ac-
cording to Melissa DeRosa, the
governor’s top aide.
Officials couldn’t immedi-
ately say how the new restric-
tions would affect sporting
events or whether faculty or
administrative staff would re-
port to campuses.
“We want to reduce den-
sity,” Mr. Cuomo said during a
Wednesday afternoon briefing.
The number of confirmed
cases of coronavirus in New
York has climbed to 216, offi-
cials said, with the greatest
concentration remaining in
Westchester County.
On Tuesday, Mr. Cuomo an-
nounced the state would can-
cel school and prohibit large
public gatherings in a roughly
3 square-mile area of New Ro-
chelle, where a 50-year-old
lawyer who has been hospital-
ized because of coronavirus
interacted with dozens of peo-
ple at religious services.
Roughly 416,000 students
were enrolled at the State Uni-
versity of New York system’s
64 campuses last semester, ac-
cording to the school.
That includes major univer-
sity centers in Albany, Buffalo,
Binghamton and Stony Brook,
as well as community colleges.
There are more than
500,000 students enrolled at
25 campuses within the City
University of New York sys-
tem. Each campus is working
with system administrators to
develop their own plan, said
Dani Lever, Mr. Cuomo’s direc-
tor of communications.
The announcement follows
moves by several private col-
leges around the state.
Columbia University, in
Manhattan, canceled classes
on Monday and is moving to
online instruction. Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute in Troy
suspended in-person instruc-
tion for two weeks starting on
March 16, when classes re-
sume after spring break.
United University Profes-
sions President Frederick
Kowal, a union leader who
represents SUNY faculty and
staff, said in an interview that
he was still working out the
details of the closure with uni-
versity administrators.
“We have SUNY campuses
that teach veterinary science—
we have herds of animals that
have to be cared for by our
members, and we have medi-
cal students and residents in
hospitals,” Mr. Kowal said.
“I am hopeful that there
will be latitude to campuses to
adjust their instruction to take
into account unique circum-
stances,” he added.
Both Mr. Cuomo and New
York City Mayor Bill de Blasio
have encouraged companies to
let people work from home if
possible and to stagger their
shifts to reduce opportunities
for the disease to spread.

BYJIMMYVIELKIND

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