The virus was first spotted in the US in late January, in a man who had flown to Washington state from Wuhan, the Chinese city where it was discovered. But since then it has suffered more than 260,000 infections and buried 24,000 of its citizens, almost 10 times the number who died at the World Trade Center in 2001. A week earlier, New York governor Andrew Cuomo declared: “Excuse our arrogance as New Yorkers . . . we don't even think it's going to be as bad as it was in other countries.”Īs the National Guard responded to New Rochelle’s 108 recorded cases, Mr Cuomo observed reassuringly that New York City had just 36 and no deaths. “We’re prepared and we’re doing a great job with it, and it will go away,” said Donald Trump, US president, on March 10. The US had seen coronavirus coming as it swept from China through Asia, Europe and Iran in early 2020. Epidemiologists believe coronavirus did not gain steam until it entered New York from Europe in mid-February, when it spread fast through the tightly-packed city and across the US © Mark Kauzlarich/Bloomberg There were already 10,000 cases of Covid in NYC,” says Mr Bramson. But in reality it was through the walls and ducts . . . it was everywhere. “We thought we were dealing with a kitchen fire and could knock it down with a hand extinguisher. Within 17 days, the Javits Center would become a field hospital. New Yorkers who were not sick or vulnerable “should be going about your life”, said Mayor Bill de Blasio on March 11, as the city’s largest conference venue boasted about a “buzzing” coffee trade show. Yet nothing in New York City was locked down. But in reality it was through the walls and ducts' © Monique Jaques/FT He says of coronavirus: 'We thought we were dealing with a kitchen fire and could knock it down with a hand extinguisher. New Rochelle mayor Noam Bramson outside City Hall last week. The New Rochelle lawyer, seen as “patient zero” for “community spread” because he had not visited any coronavirus hotspots, had commuted to the city. What will we do if there are food riots? How will we deal with civil unrest? What happens if the virus sweeps through our essential workforce?," says the 50-year-old mayor.īut in the world’s financial capital, just eight miles away, business bustled on. “I went through a series of worst-case scenarios. But within days businesses and schools were shuttering, and a deadly quiet was descending across the US. On March 10, he thought New Rochelle’s lockdown looked “dramatic”. A week after a local lawyer had been diagnosed with coronavirus, a mile-wide containment zone was being drawn around the virus’s first known superspreader event on the US’s east coast.Īfter a sleepless night, Mayor Noam Bramson called his city manager to spill out his worries. New Rochelle’s mayor watched as the National Guard rolled into the commuter hub north of New York City, wearing camouflage that offered no disguise in suburbia. Within days of the lockdown, businesses and school were shuttering across the US © Angus Mordant/Bloomberg An empty street in New Rochelle after the commuter hub was locked down in March.
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