NYC Hospital Bars Most Visitors Amid Coronavirus Crisis

From CBS New York:

NEW YORK CITY – Hospitals are introducing strict measures to stop the spread of the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

The Mount Sinai Health System is taking extra precautions starting today.

Most visitors will be prohibited from its hospitals and ambulatory sites in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

Exceptions include one healthy partner in maternity and one healthy visitor at a time in end-of-life care and in pediatric intensive care. All of those visitors must be 15 years old or older and show no signs of the coronavirus, like fever or cough.

The president announced sweeping new guidelines to fight the virus, urging every American to stay home from work and school for the next 15 days, avoid social gatherings of more than 10 people and eating and drinking at bars, restaurants and food courts.

“We know that we have a large group of millennials between 25 and almost 40, they are really key to this, they are a social group. So that ‘no more than 10’ is very much focused on them,” said White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx.

Trump said the virus could last through July or August.

In perhaps one of the most drastic actions to stop the virus spread, San Francisco ordered everyone to shelter in place until early April.

“The new pubic health order that we’re announcing will require San Franciscans to remain at home, with exceptions only for essential outings.

It’s a mass isolation of 6.7 million people, which Dr. Anthony Fauci endorses.

“The best way to address it would be doing something that looks like it might be an overreaction. It isn’t an overreaction,” he said.

The White House added the coronavirus is two to three times more contagious than the flu, making the new guidelines for social distancing all the more important in protecting America’s most vulnerable.