President Trump to quarantine New York, Connecticut and New Jersey amid pandemic

President Trump is considering quarantining New York, Connecticut and New Jersey in desperate efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

The move will restrict travel to and from the three states.   

‘We’d like to see New York quarantined because it’s a hotspot — New York, New Jersey, maybe one or two other places, certain parts of Connecticut quarantined. I’m thinking about that right now,’ he said Saturday.

‘We might not have to do it but there’s a possibility that sometime today we’ll do a quarantine — short term two weeks for New York, probably New Jersey and parts o Connecticut.’

The president made the comments as he touched down at Joint Base Andrews around noon Saturday and spoke to reporters.

‘We’re looking at it,’ he said about the possible quarantine of the three states.

‘We’re looking at it and will be making a decision. A lot of the states that are infected – they’ve asked me if I’d look at it so we’re going to look at it. Maybe for a short period of time.’

‘It would be for a short time’ for parts of New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, he said.

However when asked if he would shut down the New York City subway he said: ‘No we wouldn’t do that.’ 

The president also dismissed the idea that he would deploy the National Guard to enforce quarantine rules.

‘We’re not going to need that,’ he said. 

He said he would talk to New York state Governor Cuomo later today.

The comments came as the number of deaths in New York state reached 728 Saturday, as the US’s epicenter for coronavirus struggles to bring the pandemic under control. 

The death toll in the city rose to 450 as of early Saturday morning as its healthcare system is threatened with imminent collapse. 

On both Thursday and Friday, another 85 people died of the virus, or an average of one New Yorker every 17 minutes. There are 26,697 confirmed NYC cases as the national total soars over 100,000. 

Queens is emerging as the epicenter of the epicenter in New York City with 8,214 cases, a one-day increase of 32 percent.

In just the past week, one funeral home in Queens has held service for close to a dozen people who have died from the virus, and is expecting to do more.

Manhattan patients are testing positive at a significantly lower rate than the outer boroughs with no neighborhood reporting over 40 percent of patients confirmed positive.

With the president was Kellyanne Conway, Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino. 

Defense Secretary Mark Esper was also on the plane.