FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JULY 16, 2020 • THE QUEENS COURIER 3
сoronavirus
COVID-19 infection rate increases
among people under 30: Mayor
BY ALEJANDRA
O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Mayor Bill de Blasio reported a rising
coronavirus infection rate among young
adults on Monday, a day aft er the city
boasted fi nally reaching a day with zero
coronavirus-related deaths four months
into the pandemic.
Th e rising infection rate is mostly taking
Photo by Todd Maisel
Governor announces fi nes for
travelers skirting quarantine rules
BY MARK HALLUM
mhallum@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Governor Andrew Cuomo has
tasked the Port Authority with
ordering arrivals into New York
airports from COVID-19-heavy
states to hunker down for 14
days, and failure to check in with
those enforcing this measure
could face a $2,000 summons.
Cuomo plans to circumvent
a repeat of the early months of
2020 when millions of travelers
from Italy passed through New
York metro-area airports, leading
to cases of the virus climbing
throughout March, April and
May.
“Th e fi rst mistake was bringing
the virus from Europe to
New York. Th e second mistake
will bring it from Georgia to
New York, Texas to New York,
Arizona to New York and the 38
states that are experiencing their
own mountain,” Cuomo said. “It
was the federal government that
caused our problem and then,
frankly, wanted nothing to do
with the solution.”
Alongside a silent Rick Cotton,
chairman of the Port Authority
of New York and New Jersey,
Cuomo said at his Manhattan
offi ce Monday that the transportation
agency will handle sift -
ing through travelers’ origin
and destination in
the downstate region.
Th e governor himself
will not be issuing the
order, however.
It will come down
from the state
Department of
Health for
airlines to
hand out a
questionnaire
with
pe r t i n e nt
information
to be handed
to the
Port Authority upon landing. If
an individual is not compliant,
they face a civil summons. A
court order can also be imposed
on people to quarantine for a full
14 days.
“Th e other states didn’t start
with a spike; they just had to
stop it from increasing. With all
we did in New York and all
we knew other states
were just blind to the
reality,” Cuomo said.
Cuomo said the
state has a formula
and guidelines
that tell localities
when and how
schools may
begin reopening,
but that it
would not go
the route advocated
by the
federal government
to
proceed with
this aspect of
returning to normalcy. Regions
will make this call if their infection
rate is below 5 percent or
lower over a 14-day average,
Cuomo said, and in phase four.
But in schools, personal protective
equipment will also be
considered paramount to school
bells ringing once again.
New York City is currently
in phase three of reopening
and there have been no
announcements toward when
the state will allow for the next
phase to begin. If schools see a
spike, there will be an emergency
stop order put in place and
if schools have other facilities
to turn to that would be safer
for students and staff , Cuomo
said they could get approval
to do so.
Entering phase three coupled
with a debate at the city and state
level as to whether or not indoor
dining would be allowed. In the
end, this facet was shelved for
better times.
place among 20- to 29-year-olds,
although the infection rate is also going
up among New Yorkers in their 30s, following
a pattern occurring in southern
states like Texas, Florida, Louisiana,
North Carolina, South Carolina and
Arizona last month.
In many of these states, nearly half of
all new cases in June appeared in people
younger than 40. De Blasio said
that the city will “double down” on its
effort to educate young people that they
are not impervious to the virus through
digital media messages and a night of
mobile action outreach, mask giveaways
and running mobile testing vans.
More details on what the “digital media
message” and night of mobile action will
look like will be released “in the coming
days,” de Blasio spokesperson Avery
Cohen wrote in an email.
Although health offi cials warn the
virus is most deadly for people 65 and
over, young people can still become
ill and die from the virus. In
order to mitigate the
spread of the virus,
de Blasio reminded
New Yorkers to wear
masks while inside
of any indoor location,
besides their
home, like pharmacies,
grocery stores
and offi ces.
De Blasio
announced that
10 more walkin
coronavirus
testing sites are
coming online
in the Bronx,
Queens and
B r o o k l y n .
Eight out of
the 10 sites are
already open
and ready to
provide free
tests and two
more will be
ready to administer tests soon, de Blasio
told reporters.
Out of the 10 new coronavirus testing
sites, seven are in the Bronx at the Ramon
Velez Health Center, Claremont Health
Center, Clay Avenue Health Center, the
Casa Maria Health Center, the Stevenson
Family Health Center, and the Union
Community Health Center Sites at East
188th Street and Grand Concourse. New
Yorkers can now get tested at the Th omas
and Marie White Health Center in Queens
and at Hope Gardens at 120 Menahan St.
in Brooklyn.
Th e mayor’s offi ce has not clarifi ed
which two testing sites are not ready to
administer tests.
Th e mayor’s offi ce reported that only
July 11, 56 New Yorkers were admitted to
a public hospital with possible COVID-
19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus,
and 279 people were in an intensive
care unit at a public hospital due to
coronavirus-related complications.
Only 2 percent of New Yorkers tested
positive that same day, the city reported.
Courtesy of Cuomo's offi ce
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