New York is deploying National Guard troops for the first time in the coronavirus crisis to help contain the spread of the disease from an infection-hit suburb of New York City, the state's governor said on Tuesday.
Andrew Cuomo said authorities would set up a one-mile radius "containment zone" around the epicenter of an outbreak in New Rochelle in suburban Westchester county.
Mr Cuomo explained that all facilities in the zone that hold large gatherings, such as schools and temples, would be closed for two weeks beginning Thursday.
"We're also going to use the National Guard in the containment area to deliver food to homes, to help with the cleaning of public spaces," Mr Cuomo said.
There have been 173 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in New York state, including 108 in Westchester County, home to New Rochelle where the majority of infections have been detected.
People walk through downtown on 10 March, 2020 in New Rochelle, New York. Source: Getty Images North America
US cases surge
The number of US cases of the novel coronavirus surged to more than 900 on Tuesday, according to an AFP tally, after public health experts criticised authorities for downplaying the epidemic and lagging behind in testing efforts.
At least 28 people have died and some 910 people have been infected, according to a state-by-state count, a significant jump of some 550 cases the day before.
The rise is linked to an expansion in testing as the bulk of diagnoses have shifted from federal to state laboratories.
Epidemiologists have said faulty test kits coupled with a diagnostic strategy that initially targeted too few people allowed the disease to spread beyond US authorities' ability to detect it.
Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on Monday, academics from Johns Hopkins University and Stanford University said the failings had contributed to the virus taking root across the country.
Speaking at a White House briefing, Vice President Mike Pence defended the federal government's response and said that "a million tests are in the field." He added that more would be added as the government partnered with private companies.
According to the latest CDC figures, 8,554 tests had been performed as of Monday.
By way of comparison, South Korea, which announced its first case on the same day as the US, has tested more than 189,000 people, according to a report in the Business Insider.
Largest cluster in the country
Mr Cuomo told reporters that businesses in the containment zone will remain open and that people will be free to come and go as they wish, insisting there is no quarantine.
"You're not containing people, it's facilities," he said.
"It is a dramatic action but it is the largest cluster in the country. This is literally a matter of life and death," Mr Cuomo added.
The area is centered on a synagogue in New Rochelle, a city of 80,000 inhabitants just north of New York City, which was attended by the state's first case - a lawyer working in Manhattan.
The United States has more than 800 confirmed cases of the deadly virus, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University.
Twenty-eight people have died, 23 of those in Washington state.
No one has died in New York.
