NYC Mayor Says Avoid Packed Subways As COVID-19 Cases Increase

NEW YORK CITY — Mayor Bill de Blasio urged New Yorkers to stay off packed subways and plan to telecommute if possible as the city prepares for hundreds of cases of COVID-19 within the next couple of weeks.

"I think we could well be at a hundred cases of hundreds of cases over the next two or three weeks," he said at a news briefing Sunday.

"We have to be prepared for that reality."

The mayor made the remarks as he announced a 13th postive case in the city. Across the state, the number of those sickened grew to more than 105, and a state of emergency has been declared.

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The mayor urged anybody who is sick to stay at home. Anybody not sick was advised to avoid crowded places.

"For employers, if you can institute telecommuting or more telecommuting, you should," he said.

He continued, "If you are traveling by subway and the train that comes up is all packed and you can possibly wait for the next train in the hopes it might be less packed, please do. Very commonsense measure.

"If you have the option of walking to work or taking a bike to work, please do."

The city has also barred international travel for schools.

The mayor stressed that the new strain of coronavirus is of particular danger to older people with pre-existing conditions. Those were listed as heart disease, lung disease, cancer, immune system vulnerability and diabetes.

He said, "if you contract coronavirus, you're under 50 you don't have those pre-existing conditions, you will generally experience it the same way you do a common cold or flu and there'll be unpleasant, but you'll be OK in the end."

As of Sunday, New York City had 19 people in mandatory isolation and 2,176 in voluntary self-quarantine.

The cases in the city are:

• A 39-year-old health care worker from Manhattan reported to have the virus March 2.
• A Midtown lawyer from New Rochelle.
• A woman in her 80s and a man in his 40s.
• A family of the Upper West Side. The father, 51, mother, 47, and daughter, 11, tested positive.
• An Uber driver in Far Rockaway, 33, who works mainly on Long Island.
• Two women from Brooklyn, 66 and 71, who went on a cruise to Egypt.
• A 39-year-old man from Brooklyn who was in Italy.
• A 58-year-old man who lives in Manhattan and who traveled to Chile.
• A case in The Bronx for which details have not yet been released.