Coronavirus in N.Y.: Inside New Rochelle’s ‘Containment Area’

The pictures and video of food distribution by the National Guard are alarming. Food distribution in the largest cluster of cases in NYS and NOT one member of the National Guard is wearing protective clothing and equipment. Nuts!!! Can the NYTimes call them and point out the obvious? They certainly wont listen to a regular Joe. Similar images from China and S. Korea show members of security forces covered from head to feet in protective gear. Let's use our brains, please.

For all the commenters who are calling New Rochelle rich, privileged, and protected: You do not know New Rochelle. You probably have not visited. You might not even have heard about it. For over half a century, at least, New Rochelle has been home to hard-working immigrants. Your remarks are not just ignorant regarding the life of this city, which by no means is populated exclusively by Jewish lawyers and Jewish doctors, as you suggest, but also antisemitic.

At least we are protecting one of the wealthiest counties in America.

I'm frustrated that Cuomo has said, as if to reassure people, that this isn't an effort to contain people, it's to contain facilities: Facilities don't get sick and die. We NEED our government to contain the people! Like they did in China, rather effectively (albeit with an embarrassing, politically motivated lag)... We've already witnessed the embarrassing, politically motivated response from the US federal government. There's no more time for that. Time is of the essence....

I live in New Rochelle, right in the containment zone. New Rochelle is a wonderful city. We choose diversity and we help each other. I hope this is not submitted twice, there but I feel it is very important to say that there is not a sense of panic here. There is some stress on people's faces. But, everyone helps each other. No one goes to the supermarket without asking our neighbors if they need something. I noticed the workers not wearing the gloves like @Sarah below, and I contacted city hall, asking them to create a protocol for safer handling of the food and computers that they are handing out. Although they are extremely busy, I have faith that my city will respond. Who are the real heros? The Supermarket Workers! These folks did not sign up to be our first line of defense. Yet they are all there, with smiles on their faces and gloves on their hands. Today I thanked every one. And they likely will not get paid if they don't go to work... Today there are TV crews everywhere looking to film hysteria. There is none. I have more faith in my city and my neighbors than I do in the White House.

Thank you for the quick reaction. Hopefully it's not too late. Thank you to the inmates for helping make that hand sanitizer. Let's hope this action contains this spread and we do not have to see this same scene repeat all over the country.

Please close ALL of NYC public schools NOW and have the National Guard bring food to the 100k homeless NYC school children and the other hundreds of thousands of students who rely on school for lunch instead of to a tiny group of people in New Rochelle, half of whom probably have enough food in their pantries and garages to get through a long winter anyway. The ‘Containment Area” in New Rochelle does not restrict the movement of people so it is useless in containing a virus! This response is a travesty.

You know at least one of those National Guardsmen is silently asking, "Why did I sign up for this?"

This is now The Stand.

We don't need a wall with Mexico, we need one with NYS & CT.... joking.

I live in New Rochelle, right in the containment zone. This is a wonderful community. We choose diversity. We help each other. I noticed, like @Sarah below that the helpers in photos were not wearing gloves. I sent a message to city hall asking them, although they are very busy, to please prepare a protocol quickly for handing out the food, computers etc. I have faith in my city that they will respond to my request. In truth, everyone here is calm. There is a bit of a look of stress on many faces, but we are all helping each other. No one goes to the supermarket without asking what they can pick up for a neighbor. We all check in on each other daily. Who are the real heros? THE SUPERMARKET WORKERS. They did not sign up for this. They did not intend to become EMTs. I thanked everyone in my supermarket today and elbow bumped them. They all had smiles on there faces and gloves on their hands. They are the front lines that are helping people get by. There are TV crews everywhere today. It seems as if they are just looking for hysteria, which is no where to be found. I have faith in my city and and my neighbors. Much more faith than I have in the White House!

Yet a germ pool like Disney World remains open for business?

Unfortunately, unlike a snow storm, when the "snow melts" on this pandemic, quite a few of us will not be getting back to normal life. A lot of people will pay the ultimate price for our nihilist healthcare system which labors under the fantasy that my health is completely separate from your health. This horrorshow- and its likely to be a true horrorshow- will expose the fragility of our system.

Yesterday, the NYT had an article on how researchers at the University of Washington had been able to alter a test they had for the flu to also look for the corona virus. Both the federal and state governments told the researchers not to use their test largely because their lab is regulated under one set of protocols rather than another. Since we are in the midst of an emergency, the researchers tried to get the various government agencies to allow them to use the test anyway. When the bureaucrats refused, the researchers decided to go ahead on their own. They found more cases of the corona virus, and determined that it had been circulating, here in Seattle, for the past 6 weeks. Our state government has now ordered the researchers to stop using their test until the researchers get various government bureaucracies to issue all of the necessary certifications. This could take many weeks. (NYT article: '‘It’s Just Everywhere Already’: How Delays in Testing Set Back the U.S. Coronavirus Response”.)

These measures are laughable. You don't even have any idea of how many people are infected, because yo're not doing any testing, and so many positives are asymptomatic. This reminds me of what it was like here in Milan three weeks ago. Don't panic, but STAY HOME. Eliminating physical social interaction is the only way to beat this thing, as China has shown, and even though draconian measures are generally thought to be impossible in a democracy, when things start getting out of hand there will be no other choice.

Yup, wealthy areas with lots of lawyers and CEOs will get groceries and meds delivered by the National Guard. Meanwhile, guess what's going to happen on the other side of the tracks?

Can someone please explain to me why everyone is being quarantined and not just people who are at high risk of mortality due to covid 19? What happens to the people and their families who aren’t paid salaries and risk losing their livelihoods, the public school students who need free and reduced price lunch, or the resident college students who have no place to live outside the dorms? It seems the goal is to prevent the spread to people who risk death via exposure but that officials are tackling this problem by implementing measures that affects the general populations’ welfare. What am I missing?

show a map of the area

I hope Cohen is right, and this is nothing more than a snow storm, which will last only that long and not kill a lot of people.

Surprised to see that all the National Guard soldiers are not anywhere near the epicenter in the Wykagyl neighborhood. I am wondering why this is?

My guess is that the cases in the U.S. are in the millions, not thousands. Only way to know for sure is to test a large random sample of people across the Country. There is no way to stop Mother Nature but it is a good idea to attempt to slow it down so that we have sufficient health facilities available at any one time to help those in need.

Hopefully, Cuomo, Di Blasio and NYS are taking copious notes on successes and failures in our coping strategies going forward. This is exactly when we need to keep our heads. In my household our level of awareness is just beginning to show us how something like the corona virus can spread without us even realizing it. Once we become aware that doing something like picking up our phones after we've washed our hands can potentially spread the virus (a click in our consciousness) we can apply it to multiple situations. It's a little crazy making but we need to adjust.

Wait. I'm bamboozled. This is an area that has numerous coronavirus reports? Yet, NOONE in any of the photos are seen wearing masks, gloves or any protective covering. Cancel school yet smiling (unprotected) workers hand-off computers to potential (also unprotected) virus carriers, at close coughing range, like they are at a picnic. Yippee. There is a gravitas missing in how we are approaching this epidemic. And a lack of any established protocol. Isn't it time, waaay over time, to establish some procedures that actually might be effective? If not, why bother to establish lock-down with just a hope and a prayer, to *contain* potential devastation?

I am struck that in the photos of the NY National Guard all of the soldiers are of color. I am just wondering of this shows that men and women of color join the armed forces as a matter of necessity: need for jobs and training as well as education assistance. Not quite the same as during the Vietnam War when African-American men were drafted disproportionately. But perhaps an another example of white privilege. I am white by the way.

I’m glad State and County government officials are taking actions to slow the spread of the coronavirus and disgusted by the lack of action in Washington. I was reviewing posted statistics and what is obvious is that more test kits are needed because there must be lots more cases here. Most countries - France, Italy, Germany - show about 100 cases per 1 million population. China is less because it was contained and the population is so large. The US figure was 4.1 cases per 1 million population. I don’t believe it. Our government is either hiding something or testing is inadequate. That number is an outlier by orders of magnitude and is probably understated. The best way to beat this is with honesty. More test kits now!

From your neighbors in Scarsdale, a big thank you to the National Guard and to those folks preparing the food and delivering the laptops. Until recently we regularly visited the Schaffer Center in New Rochelle to bring a little joy to residents, and we will return once everything returns to 'normal'.