Six northeast U.S. governors are having an “emergency summit” on COVID-19 this weekend as the virus continues to spread throughout the region, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday.
Cuomo said the group will discuss potential coordination of restrictions on restaurants and bars, as well as interstate travel and quarantine rules. Several states have passed new restrictions this week, including New York’s 10 p.m. curfew for bars and restaurants and a ban on gatherings over 10 people in private residences.
“We believe we’re going to have to be taking additional steps,” Cuomo said, though he said he doesn’t expect any major changes to existing rules over the weekend.
Cuomo said he expects infection rates will keep increasing in New York and nationwide as the holiday season begins.
New York has reported more than 45,700 new coronavirus cases in the past 14 days. The state is reporting an average of 4,163 new cases per day over the past seven days. That’s nearly double the rate 11 days ago and quadruple where things stood at the end of September.
“You cannot take this rate of increase and survive pending the arrival of a vaccine,” Cuomo said.
JURY SELECTION SUSPENDED
New York state courts are suspending jury selection and one county has halted its counting of absentee ballots as coronavirus cases rise.
Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence Marks said in a memo Friday that jury selection in New York’s state court system will stop Monday, though ongoing criminal and civil trials will continue to their conclusions.
He said no new grand jurors will be selected and future bench trials and hearings will be conducted by video until further notice.
New York resumed jury trials on Sept. 9 in counties outside of New York City after halting them statewide in March because of the pandemic. In the city, civil and criminal jury trials began again on Oct. 26.
VOTING COUNTING HALTED
In central New York, Onondaga County has stopped counting absentee ballots because a staff member was exposed to COVID-19.
Onondaga County Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny said Friday that the counting process was postponed until further notice, and his office was arranging to secure ballots.
Voters in the county, which encompasses the city of Syracuse, submitted about 52,000 absentee ballots in the November election. At least 30,000 remained uncounted as of Thursday. The results stand to decide a competitive seat in the state Senate’s 50th District.
POSSIBLE NYC SCHOOLS SHUTDOWN
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told parents Friday to be prepared for the city’s school system to end all in-person learning instruction as soon as Monday if the spread of the virus continues to accelerate.
The Democrat has said he will close school buildings if 3% of coronavirus tests conducted in the city over a seven-day period came back positive. As of Friday that rate was at 2.8%, the mayor said, and climbing.
The city is preparing to close all school buildings if the rate crosses the threshold over the weekend, de Blasio said.
“I want to urge parents to have a plan ready that they can put into effect as early as Monday,” de Blasio said during his weekly talk on WNYC radio. “Parents should have a plan for the rest of the month of November.”
(AP)
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One Response
“You cannot take this rate of increase and survive pending the arrival of a vaccine,” Cuomo said. This creature is a traitor to all NYS residents, because even if the vaccine is up & going, this creature has already vowed that he shall do anything & everything to banish & suppress this vaccine from NYS until after Noon on January 20th, 2021, out of his unrelenting hate for our best President Donald Trump.