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New York:
As the outbreak picked up pace in New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who had adopted a friendly tone toward Mr. Trump, came close on Tuesday to chastising the federal government, which he said had so far sent only 400 much-needed ventilators to New York City.
“You want a pat on the back for sending 400 ventilators,” Mr. Cuomo said. “What are we going to do with 400 ventilators when we need 30,000 ventilators?”
The response from Mr. Trump was swift. At a Fox News town hall, the president lashed out at Mr. Cuomo, whose daily briefings have gained national attention as fact-based counters to Mr. Trump’s own. “I watch him on this show complaining,” Mr. Trump said, before criticizing Mr. Cuomo for earlier failing to buy ventilators at “a great price.”
Mr. Cuomo, speaking at the Javits Center in Manhattan, which the Army Corps is retrofitting into a 1,000-bed emergency hospital, said the rate of new coronavirus infections in New York is doubling about every three days. “We haven’t flattened the curve,” he said.
The peak of infection in New York could in as little as two to three weeks, far earlier than previously anticipated, Mr. Cuomo said, putting an even bigger strain on the health care system than officials had feared. The governor said the state now projects that it may need as many as 140,000 hospital beds to house virus patients, up from the 110,000 projected a few days ago. As of now, only 53,000 are available.
“Those are troubling and astronomical numbers,” he said.
As of Tuesday morning, New York State had 25,665 cases, with at least 157 deaths.
There were around 15,000 cases in New York City alone.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida expanded his efforts to quarantine visitors from New York, saying on Tuesday that he would sign an order extending a self-isolation requirement for anyone who had traveled from the New York area in the last three weeks.
Several factors have made the New York metropolitan area a prime target for the virus, including its population density, reliance on public transportation and constant influx of tourists.
To stop the virus, scientists have to figure out which factors play a greater role than others.
“We have more speculation than facts,” said Dr. Arnold Monto, professor of epidemiology and global health at the University of Michigan.
There was surely an early and undetected introduction of the virus into the city, probably in mid- to late January, according to Benjamin Cowling, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Hong Kong.
“Many of the cases being detected in the past week are the result of that slow process that has built up over two months,” he said.
Perhaps the epidemic in New York had less to do with the virus than with the opportunities to spread: In so-called super-spreader events, one patient somehow manages to infect dozens, even scores of others. At one point, half the cases in Massachusetts were attributed to a single initial infection.
The virus often seems to spread in defined clusters in New York, as it has elsewhere. “When you see a case, you see a lot of cases,” said Donald Berry, a biostatistician at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
In New York, he added, “It all comes together to spell a very bad picture.”
The city’s own demographics may have contributed: dense, yes, but in a way that puts the elderly in close proximity with one another, along with those made vulnerable by underlying health conditions.
Florida Tampa Bay:
TREASURE ISLAND — Now that the beach outside the Bilmar Beach Resort is closed, general manager Clyde Smith isn’t sure how long he can keep his entire staff of 150 working.
In a letter to the county, Smith pleaded to allow resort access to the beach while restricting the general public. A compromise, he hoped, would keep COVID-19 from spreading without having to lay off up to half his staff. He was already staring down a week with just 30 percent of 164 rooms filled. At one point, nearly every one was booked for spring break.
“My employees are worried," Smith said.
”The hard part is even when, and hopefully soon, the virus curves, what is the economic impact going to be?" he said. “Who is going to have money to still travel?”
The beaches closed Friday and Smith’s already meager numbers are likely to plummet for the weekend on. The vacation cancellations began rolling in as cases of the coronavirus began to appear in the United State and Florida. They came just just as spring break was supposed to send throngs of high school and college students to Pinellas County beaches and the Bilmar.
“We’ve waived cancellation fees,” Smith said. “But we just hope some will come.”
Tampa events such the NCAA men’s basketball championship games and Wrestlemania, expected economic boons, were all canceled. It has left hoteliers and tourism businesses throughout Tampa Bay navigating a public health crisis while trying to stave off layoffs as long as possible.
More than 1.2 million Floridians work in the leisure and hospitality industry, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Between Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, local tourism bureaus estimate more than 150,000 people are employed by the hospitality industry. At least they were before the outbreak.
Tampa Bay tourism leaders say layoffs and furloughs have already begun, or are coming, as Tampa Bay hotels struggle through what was supposed to be peak tourism season. Two massive luxury hotels in Chicago have shut down. Monroe County has moved to close all of its hotels, shuttering Key West’s tourism industry starting Sunday.
Hotel occupancy nationwide was down between 24 and 53 percent in the second week of March, according to hotel data from industry expert STR, Inc. In Tampa Bay last week, rates were down about 17 percent. Occupancy rates for the rest of the month will likely take a nosedive.
“There is no precedent,” said Visit St. Pete/Clearwater CEO Steven Hayes. “Whatever we have experienced, it’s not this."
Jan Freitag, STR’s senior senior vice president of lodging insights, analyzed the occupancy trends COVID-19 caused already in Italy and China. He said the latest U.S. numbers aren’t even close to the bottom. He has been asked to predict the timeline of decline and just how long the industry could take to bounce back, but those questions don’t have answers.
RELATED: Tampa Bay loves to buy local, but can small businesses survive COVID-19?
As of Friday, 10 Floridians have died and the state had more than 500 confirmed coronavirus cases. Experts say the actual number of infected is likely muchgreater and discourage non-essential travel and gathering in groups.
Tourism leaders have described the sudden loss in business as almost surreal. The only comparison they can grasp onto is the two-month period following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. But even then, locals were still inside restaurants while tourists avoided the airlines. Businesses were having regional conferences, filling some hotel rooms. Bob Morrison, the head of the Hillsborough County Hotel and Motel Association, said many Hillsborough County hotels that rely on conferences and conventions don’t have a single group booked for the rest of March and April.
Smith said on Treasure Island — unlike the now-viral scenes at a crowded Clearwater Beach earlier this week — people self-regulated by staying in small groups, far apart. One man even drew a large circle around his towel to keep others away. Ultimately, county officials deemed the health risks were still too severe. The beaches will be closed for at least the next two weeks, another blow to already struggling tourism-tied businesses.
Tampa Bay’s tourism industry has not only been reliable, but growing, the last several years. New hotels are nearing completion of their construction, ready to serve what had been a growing demand. Morrison said hotels that intended to start hiring staff will now have to wait out the virus to begin the hunt. New hotels slated to open in late summer and early fall could sit, unoccupied and unstaffed, for weeks or months.
“This idea of ‘when we return to normal,'" said Hayes, of the Pinellas tourism bureau, “well, I’d like to know what ‘normal’ is going to be. The travel and tourism industry is very resilient — 9/11, the oil spill, the recession, we bounce back. The question is how quickly and in what form.”
Tampa Bay’s tourism leaders are trying to guide hotels and other businesses to low-interest loans and government aid to make payroll. The industry at large is calling on congress to create a fund to keep workers employed and travel businesses open.
“The good news is because we have worked so hard to build Tampa Bay’s platform," Morrison said, “we have got a shot of more rapid recovery than most.”
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