New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio asked all residents to wear face coverings to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.
“We’re advising New Yorkers to wear a face covering when you go outside and near other people,” the Democrat said during a news conference on Thursday. “It can be a scarf. It can be something you create at home. It can be a bandana.”
New York City has become a major hot spot for the virus, with about 1,397 associated deaths.
The White House is also expected to urge people to wear cloth masks or face coverings in public to mitigate the spread of the virus, according to the Washington Post.
“In light of these new data, along with evidence of widespread transmission in communities across the country, CDC recommends the community use of cloth masks as an additional public health measure people can take to prevent the spread of virus to those around them,” guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided to the White House said.
During a briefing on Tuesday, President Trump suggested people use a scarf if they cannot find a face mask because of shortages.
Earlier this week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned that the state’s supply of ventilators could run short over the next several days.
De Blasio was the subject of media scrutiny regarding his response to the coronavirus pandemic. He was criticized in March for visiting a YMCA gym after announcing that restaurants, bars, gyms, and other businesses in the city would need to close. The mayor defended his decision to work out a day before the order went into effect, saying, “There was almost no one there.”
“I had heard that information prior,” he continued. “I suspected that we were all going to be about to close them down, and this would be the last time to get some exercise.”
De Blasio’s tweets have also been criticized as the city takes further steps to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus. In early March, he encouraged residents of New York to “go on with your lives” and “get out on the town” despite a confirmed case of the virus in the city. CNN’s Jake Tapper confronted him over the weekend for his response being “far behind the curve.”
In recent weeks, however, de Blasio has advocated for extreme measures to combat the coronavirus’s spread, including the nationalization of certain industries and permanently closing places of worship that violate public health orders.
According to the New York Department of Health, over 92,000 state residents have tested positive for COVID-19, representing a large percentage of all cases in the United States. More than 1,000,000 people have tested positive for the coronavirus globally. Of those, at least 51,000 have died from it, and more than 208,000 have recovered. The U.S. has seen at least 236,000 confirmed cases, with nearly 8,800 reported recoveries.
