- US health officials said they remained "deeply concerned" with New York City and the surrounding area as the coronavirus continues to spread across the country.
- Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator, said people who were recently in New York should self-quarantine for 14 days.
- "Because of the rate of the number of cases, you may have been exposed before you left New York," she said.
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US health officials said they remained "deeply concerned" with New York City and the surrounding area as the coronavirus continues to spread across the country.
About 56% of the coronavirus cases in the country are coming out of the New York metro area, Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator, said during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon. The figure represents about 60% of new cases, and around 31% of the coronavirus-related deaths originate from the area, Birx said.
"To everyone who has left New York over the last few days, because of the rate of the number of cases, you may have been exposed before you left New York," Birx said. "Everybody who was in New York should be self-quarantining for the next 14 days to ensure the virus doesn't spread to others, no matter where they have gone - whether it's Florida, North Carolina, or out to far reaches of Long Island. "
"This will be very critical that those individuals do self-quarantine in their homes over the next 14 days, to they make sure they don't pass the virus to others based on the time they left New York," she added.
President Donald Trump concurred and added that "New York City definitely is a very hot spot."
New York remains the state with the highest number of coronavirus patients, with over 25,500 cases as of Tuesday. New Jersey ranks second with a little over 3,600 cases. At least 653 people in the US have died from the new coronavirus as of Tuesday. Roughly 51,000 cases have been reported in all 50 states, Washington DC, and US territories.
Following the release of the figures earlier this month, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio imposed several measure to curb the spread. Cuomo declared a state of emergency earlier in March, which Trump approved and allowed federal funds to be dispersed to aid the state. The USNS Comfort, a US Navy hospital ship, is also preparing to deploy to NYC to intake trauma patients and alleviate the burden from local hospitals dealing with a high number of coronavirus-related cases.
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