In one of the most bizarre pieces of Coronavirus news yet, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday that he was deploying the National Guard and setting up a containment zone in New Rochelle, NY to stop the spread of the Coronavirus.
The news comes as New Jersey reported its first COVID-19-related death — a 69-year-old man from Bergen County. Both New Jersey and New York have declared states of emergencies, but New York is the first place in the country to deploy national guard troops as part of their COVID-19 response.
Governor Cuomo said calling out the guard and setting up a “containment zone” was meant to combat the spread in New Rochelle, which he described as the “most significant cluster in the country”. But something just doesn’t feel right here, how exactly is the National Guard going to stop a virus? Is this the start of mass-quarantines without actually calling it a quarantine?
New York National Guard troops have already been dispatched to a health department command post “to assist with the outbreak,” according to a slide he presented during the press conference. The National Guard troops are expected to set up a satellite testing facility and a one-mile, two-week containment area in the city.
The National Guard will be sent to New Rochelle in New York to help slow down the spread of the coronavirus outbreak, says Governor Andrew Cuomo pic.twitter.com/nunVUEFvOC
— QuickTake by Bloomberg (@QuickTake) March 10, 2020
This is unique in the United States of America, we haven’t seen this anywhere else. Think about it, New Rochelle has double the cases of New York City, it’s true, it’s a phenomenon,” Cuomo told reporters Tuesday in announcing the deployment. Westchester County, where New Rochelle is located, had 108 COVID-19 cases out of the 173 confirmed infections across the state, according to state health department data Tuesday.
“This will be a period of disruption for the local community. I understand that,” he added.
Preparedness Resource: What we Know and How to Prepare for what could be coming…
I don’t think we will truly how deadly or how contagious COVID-19 really is for at least a couple of months. That being said, we are starting to see how people and governments are reacting to it, and that’s not good.
If I would have said this a year ago, I would have been called a conpiracy theorist but after seeing what happened in Japan, Italy, and now in New York, I think we need to be prepared for the very real possibility that your local, state and even entire region may be caught up in a quarantine where your movement is severely restricted – possibly by force and martial law.
Yes, I thought using the national guard to contain an area of the country with only one reported death was extreme. The best thing we can do is prepare for such an occurrence in our own neighborhood no matter where you live.
I am a long time reader of your blog. As a bit of feedback, I think your “Is it because I’m black” t-shirt is in poor taste. And yes, I realize it is referring to a gun. Thank you for the work you do.