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New York City to Close Schools, Restaurants and Bars

The moves are the most far-reaching and disruptive the city has taken to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

[This briefing has ended. For the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak in the New York area, read Monday’s live coverage.]

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Credit...Sarah Blesener for The New York Times

New York City’s public school system, the nation’s largest with 1.1 million students, will begin to largely shut down this week, in what is the city’s most aggressive and disruptive effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

“I’m very, very concerned that we see a rapid spread of this disease, and it’s time to take more dramatic measures,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said late Sunday afternoon. “This is a decision I have taken with no joy and a lot of pain.”

The mayor also announced on Sunday night that he would order all bars and restaurants to close, limiting them to takeout and food delivery.

Public schools in Long Island and Westchester County will also close this week, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Sunday.

The governor ordered New York City school officials to develop a plan within 24 hours on how to offer child care to students of parents who work in essential industries like health care and to provide food to students who will need meals.

In New York City, the schools will be closed on Monday for all students and staff, but teachers will be asked to report to work later in the week for training on how to provide remote learning, Mr. de Blasio said.

“These children need you,” the mayor said in an appeal to the city’s teachers. “Keep their education going.”

The decision to close the schools came after the mayor faced increasing pressure throughout the day, including from the governor.

Some campuses will reopen on March 23 as “enrichment centers.” They will be set up to provide instruction and services for vulnerable children, likely including many of its homeless students and children with special needs.

The mayor said the goal was to reopen all the schools on April 20, though he cautioned that could be overly optimistic. He said there was a strong chance that the schools would not reopen at all this school year.

“The facts have given us no other choice,” he said.

All public and private schools in Nassau County, which includes some of the most densely populated areas of Long Island, will be closed starting Monday, Laura Curran, the county executive, announced Sunday.

In New Jersey, Gov. Philip D. Murphy said Sunday that a statewide school shutdown would be “imminent.”

In Connecticut, Gov. Ned Lamont said Sunday that all public schools in the state would shut down on Tuesday and stay closed until at least March 31.

Read more about New York’s school closings.

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Credit...Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

Mayor de Blasio on Sunday night enacted new restrictions on public life in New York City after coming under increasing pressure from other elected officials, who had raised growing alarms that the city was moving far too slowly as the coronavirus outbreak spread.

They pointed out that on Saturday night bars and restaurants in many parts of the city were still relatively crowded, elevating the risk that the coronavirus would continue to spread rapidly.

Early Sunday night, Mr. de Blasio indicated that he was taking these concerns seriously. Around 10 p.m., he issued a statement saying that he was closing restaurants and bars, effective Tuesday.

“Our lives are all changing in ways that were unimaginable just a week ago,” he said. “We are taking a series of actions that we never would have taken otherwise in an effort to save the lives of loved ones and our neighbors.”

He said his executive order would limit restaurants, bars and cafes to takeout and delivery. Nightclubs, movie theaters, small theater houses and concert venues must all close.

The order will go into effect on Tuesday at 9 a.m.

“This is not a decision I make lightly,” he said. “These places are part of the heart and soul of our city. They are part of what it means to be a New Yorker. But our city is facing an unprecedented threat, and we must respond with a wartime mentality.”

In a statement earlier on Sunday, Corey Johnson, the Council speaker, had called for the closing of “all nonessential services, including bars and restaurants. We should keep essentials like grocery stores, bodegas, pharmacies, and banks open. And restaurants that can make deliveries should be able to stay open to provide delivery service.”

On Sunday afternoon, Mr. de Blasio announced a number of other measures: Ordering hospitals in the city to cancel all elective surgery, postponing an upcoming election for the Queens borough president and closing city senior centers.

In addition, Mr. Cuomo asked all nonessential state employees who work in the southern part of the state — New York City, Long Island, and Rockland and Westchester Counties — to work from home. Members of the Legislature should return to work in Albany, he said, likening them to soldiers during a war.

“The government must function,” he said at a news conference on Sunday afternoon.

While he continued to call for social distancing and sounded the alarm about the lack of hospital space, the governor also urged people to remain calm.

No elected officials are calling for closing off the city by shutting down mass transit or roadways.

The officials have emphasized that mass transit must be running in order to ensure that the health care system continues to operate.

If the subway were shut down, health care workers would have difficulty reaching hospitals and other health care facilities.

In New Jersey, the mayor of Teaneck asked the city’s 41,000 residents to self-quarantine and not to leave their homes other than to buy food or pick up medicine. There are at least 18 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Teaneck.

Gov. Philip D. Murphy said on Sunday that a statewide curfew remains “under consideration” and that a statewide shutdown of schools “is imminent.” The New Jersey system serves 1.4 million public school students.

New Jersey had 98 confirmed coronavirus cases as of Sunday afternoon, an increase of 31 new cases from the day before. Two people in the state have died after testing positive for the virus.

State courts in New York will postpone many criminal cases indefinitely and stop performing all but the most essential functions to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, officials said.

In addition, all eviction proceedings and pending eviction orders have been suspended statewide until further notice.

The state’s chief administrative judge sent a memorandum to judges, clerks and other employees on Sunday that said as of 5 p.m. on Monday, all nonessential court functions will be postponed until further notice in response to the coronavirus.

The order will put hundreds of cases on hold. People charged with felonies who are out on bail will have their cases adjourned “until further notice,” the chief administrative judge, Lawrence K. Marks, said in the memo.

Defendants who are awaiting trial in jail will also have their hearings either put off or conducted remotely using video cameras. The initial court appearances, or arraignments, of people who have just been arrested with also be conducted by video in New York City.

The city’s Red Hook Community Court and the Midtown Community Court have been designated as arraignment sites for people at “medical risk” for coronavirus where they can appear remotely by video.

But it remained unclear how much court officials could do without action by the governor or the state legislature.

State law says people who are arrested on violent felony charges and held in jail must be indicted by a grand jury within six business days or they are released from pretrial detention.

The law has long required that charges be dismissed if prosecutors don’t comply with speedy trial rules. The state’s recently enacted rules also require that prosecutors turn over evidence against the accused within 15 days of the first appearance.

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Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo at a news conference in New Rochelle on March 13.Credit...Andrew Seng for The New York Times

Governor Cuomo asked President Trump on Sunday to allow the Army Corps of Engineers to help states more quickly combat the spread of the coronavirus and expand the capacity of hospitals.

In an Op-Ed in The New York Times, Mr. Cuomo said that the Corps could “leverage its expertise, equipment and people power to retrofit and equip existing facilities — like military bases or college dormitories — to serve as temporary medical centers.”

If the worst projections become true, Mr. Cuomo said, New York State’s hospital system would not be able to handle the rush of patients, many of whom would require acute care. The state has only 3,186 intensive-care hospital beds, he said.

Mr. Cuomo said on Sunday that the state would likely need thousands of additional intensive-care beds.

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Credit...Stephanie Keith for The New York Times

As of Sunday, New York State had 729 confirmed coronavirus cases, officials said.

Five people have died in New York City, the mayor announced on Sunday afternoon. All of them had underlying health issues, he said.

The largest concentration of cases was in New York City, where 329 people have tested positive.

There were 196 confirmed cases in Westchester County, just north of New York City.

On Long Island, there were 98 confirmed cases in Nassau County and at least 47 in Suffolk County.

Just under 20 percent of the total cases in New York were of people who were hospitalized, Mr. Cuomo.

Mr. Cuomo said efforts in the city and state were still focused on tamping down the disease where they could. The state tested 700 people for the virus on Friday.

The governor expressed concerns about hospital capacity, particularly in intensive care. The state has approximately 3,000 I.C.U. beds, about 80 percent of which are already occupied, he said.

“That’s what this is all about,” the governor said. “How do you, can you, reduce the rate of spread to a level that your hospital system can manage?”

New York State’s presidential primary election could be moved from April 28 to June 23, the date of another scheduled statewide primary, in response to the coronavirus outbreak, officials said on Sunday.

Two other states — Louisiana and Georgia — have already postponed their primaries and other states are debating similar delays and alternatives, including mail-in balloting measures to avoid large crowds in public.

Douglas A. Kellner, co-chairman of the New York State Board of Elections, confirmed on Sunday that discussions were underway about the possibility of delaying the primary to curb the spread of the virus. But he said that no final decision had been reached.

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Credit...Heather Ainsworth for The New York Times

Students at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., are dealing with the emotions and logistical hurdles of being told to return home because all in-person classes have been canceled for the rest of the semester.

Cornell was one of the first universities in the country to suspend classes on campus, and the college has given students a three-week break to make the journey home before online courses begin.

The news set off a range of emotions among students, especially seniors whose college careers will not end as they had imagined.

“I feel like a lot of experiences have been stolen from me,” Justin Welfeld, a senior, said.

The trip home is not easy for some students, particularly those who live overseas. But some students refused to leave, vowing to remain near campus even after dorms shut down later this month.

“I’m staying,” said Linden Wike, 22, a senior majoring in astronomy, who questioned the length of the pause on normal, in-person classes and the wisdom of sending people “to where it might be worse.”

Stacy Cowley, Anupreeta Das, Matthew Haag, Jesse McKinley, Eliza Shapiro and Tracey Tully contributed reporting.

A correction was made on 
March 16, 2020

A previous version of this briefing mischaracterized New York State's requirements for indicting those arrested and held in jail on violent felony charges. If such people are not indicted by a grand jury within six business days, they are released from pretrial detention, but their charges are not yet dismissed.

How we handle corrections

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