A Voice from the Eastern Door
A Voice from the Eastern Door
By Andy Gardner
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has ordered all schools and non-essential businesses closed until April 29.
Meanwhile, Ontario has added more businesses to their non-essential list and ordered them to close as of April 4.
Cuomo is also increasing the civil penalty for violating the executive orders barring gatherings of more than a few people, calling on local governments to step up and strictly enforce the measure.
The school closure extends nine days past the initial decision by St. Lawrence County superintendents and BOCES to close schools until April 20.
Cuomo, during a Monday, April 6 press conference, said experts believe the social distancing measures are working, but if we give up now it could be a disaster.
“There’s a real danger of getting overconfident too quickly,” Cuomo said. “There has been a laxness on social distancing, especially over this past weekend, that has been wholly unacceptable.”
He said the penalty for gathering in large groups for non-essential purposes is now $1,000, up from $500.
“Nobody wants the money. We want the compliance. We are serious,” he said.
The governor said the cautionary measures are aimed at keeping people from catching the coronavirus and possibly needing hospital beds. And local cases have surged. Since the first reported case at the end on March, St. Lawrence County now has nearly 60 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
“People in the healthcare system are exposing themselves every day … then they have to go home to their family,” Cuomo said. “You burden people you don’t know, and frankly you don’t have the right to burden with your irresponsibility.”
He said the healthcare system is barely able to handle the coronavirus patients who need help now, and that number is expected to go up. The governor called it an “unsustainable strain on the hospital system.”
“This whole system is running at red line,” he said. “We’re beyond capacity. We are into … using bipap machine into ventilators, we are into splitting ventilators, using two tubes instead of one.”
He said the silver lining is that most patients going into hospitals now are COVID-19 patients.
“There’s fewer car accidents, crime is way down,” Cuomo said.
In Ontario, the updated essential businesses list can be found at https://www.ontario.ca/page/list-essential-workplaces.
The updated list will direct additional businesses to close and restricts specified businesses to providing services by alternate methods such as curb side pick up and delivery, except in exceptional circumstances. This includes stores that sell hardware products, vehicle parts and supplies, pet and animal supplies, office supplies and computer products and repairs and safety supplies, according to a news release from Ontario’s government.
Only critical construction projects will continue, including industrial projects such as refineries and petrochemical plants and infrastructure projects such as new hospitals, roads and bridges. New starts in residential projects will stop, while residential construction that is near completion will continue. Business-owners with questions concerning their essential business status are encouraged to call the Stop the Spread hotline at 1-888-444-3659. The hotline is available from 8:30 a.m.― 9:00 p.m. Monday to Friday and 8:30 a.m.— 5:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, the release said.
The government is implementing additional measures to protect frontline workers in essential businesses by adding more than 60 special consultants and officers and doubling the number of phone agents at its Health and Safety Call Centre to 50 to make it easier for workers to report safety concerns. Workers worried their workplaces are unsafe can phone 1-877-202-0008 to speak with an agent.
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