The New York City public transportation system appeared to be quite empty during Tuesday morning’s rush hour commute as New Yorkers heeded Mayor Bill de Blasio’s warning to stay off the subway trains due to the spread of the new coronavirus.
Though trains were less crowded during rush hour, some people were still seen going about their everyday commute. Even stations like Columbus Circle in Manhattan were far less crowded than usual.
Photos showed wary New Yorkers wearing protective gloves and masks while heading to work.
On Monday, de Blasio urged people to walk or ride a bike to work and said that residents should avoid using the subway unless it is essential after the number of coronavirus cases in the state surged to 148.
The mayor also said that people who are ill should stay off public transit if they can.
‘When we’re all packed like sardines at rush hour, you’re really close to your fellow New Yorkers. We’d like people, if they’re sick, not even to be in that situation,’ de Blasio said.
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New York City’s public transportation system appeared to be quite empty during Tuesday morning’s rush hour commute as New Yorkers heeded Mayor Bill de Blasio’s warning to stay off the subway trains due to the spread of coronavirus. Pictured is an empty platform in Brooklyn
Though trains were less crowded during rush hour, some people were still seen going about their everyday commute. New Yorkers pictured at the Newkirk Plaza station in Brooklyn
Photos show wary New Yorkers wearing protective gloves while holding the poles as well as masks on train in Manhattan Tuesday morning
Even the major hub 59th St Columbus Circle subway station in Manhattan showed light foot traffic Tuesday morning
A usually packed Q train subway station in Manhattan shows escalators with plenty of space during Tuesday morning’s commute
This image shows an empty subway platform with an express 2 train waiting at a station in Brooklyn on Tuesday
Coronavirus cases have surged to 765 in the United States as the virus continues to spread. The virus has already killed 26 people in the US
Subway trains remained full during rush hours, though Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said at a briefing that anecdotal evidence suggests they have been less crowded in recent days.
‘We’re urging employers to let people change the times that they’re coming into work and change the times that they’re leaving work so that we can stagger people and have less crowding,’ interim New York City Transit head Sarah Feinberg said Monday. ‘I can see that happening.’
A DailyMail.com request for comment to the MTA was not immediately returned.
Many people took advantage of the city’s bike share program, Citi Bike, that docking stations in Lower Manhattan ran out of space in the morning.
Natalie Davis takes the subway into Manhattan from Brooklyn to her job with The Nature Conservancy and said concerns about the virus haven’t made her change her routine.
The 31-year-old added, though, that she’s noticed people acting differently near the subway entrance at the World Trade Center, where she and two co-workers were soliciting donations.
‘Usually we high-five people and they’re into it, but in the last two weeks or so people have been like, “Hey, that’s OK, I’m good,”‘ she said.
Joan Chiverton, a freelance illustrator who was waiting at a subway station on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, said: ‘I try not to touch the railings and the turnstiles with my hands.’
‘I also try to stand away from people who cough. I do that normally, but now I’m actually moving away from people and not worrying if it looks like I’m being rude.’
Nearly 100 of the coronavirus cases in New York trace back to one community in the Westchester County suburb of New Rochelle where one of the first patients tested positive in the state.
Despite warning commuters to stay off the subway trains on Monday, de Blasio said on Tuesday that there will be no widespread school closures for now and insists there won’t be an Italy-style lockdown as he confirmed five new coronavirus cases in the city.
There are now 25 confirmed cases of coronavirus in New York City.
On Monday, de Blasio (pictured) urged people to walk or ride a bike to work and said that residents should avoid using the subway unless it is essential
And several New Yorkers heeded the mayor’s order. During Monday evening’s commute, there were several empty cars (6 train pictured) on the 6 train line in Manhattan
Throughout the city there were empty platforms (6 train in Manhattan pictured) as New Yorkers avoided the trains on Monday
This image shows the Bleecker Street subway station in Manhattan with very little foot traffic on the platform on Monday evening
This image shows a woman walking downstairs at the Port Authority station in Manhattan on Monday
De Blasio said that New York City will not close down to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
‘We cannot shut down because of undue fear,’ de Blasio told MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
‘I would advise against these mass closures when we’re keeping this situation relatively contained… ask me in a week, ask me in a month – it might change.’
He is also currently not considering widespread closures to public schools. Health officials have previously said school closures in the city would be a last resort.
The outbreak has resulted in a number of mostly private schools canceling or suspending in person classes. In New York City, Columbia University, Yeshiva University and New York University announced that classes would be canceled or offered online.
Other commuter-rail suburbs in Connecticut and New Jersey have also reported stray cases. New Jersey reported 11 cases and Connecticut has reported two.
For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough.
But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.
The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.
In mainland China, where the virus first exploded, more than 80,000 people have been diagnosed and more than 58,000 have so far recovered.
Government and transit officials have stressed that the virus can’t easily be transmitted by casual contact, such as sharing a subway car with someone who is infected.
But they also have urged people to walk or ride a bike to work, telecommute or stagger their work hours so they don’t ride at peak times.
The latter strategy was also used by the city during the 1918 influenza epidemic.
Commuters (pictured on a train in Manhattan on Monday) have been seen wearing protective gloves and adding extra casings to their phones during their New York City commutes
One woman doubled up on protection with gloves and a mask as she traveled on a train in the Bronx on Monday
A man wearing a protective mask is seen on a subway platform during his commute on Monday in Manhattan
The MTA is the nation’s largest transit system and operates the city’s subways and buses in addition to the Long Island Rail Road and MetroNorth rail systems stretching to the tip of Long Island and north to New Haven, Connecticut.
The agency has accelerated its cleaning operations to disinfect several hundred subway and rail stations and thousands of buses, subway and train cars.
MTA chairman and CEO Pat Foye said Monday that over the weekend more than 4,000 subway cars, 2,500 trains and 5,300 buses were cleaned.
‘I want to assure the public that the subways remain safe, ‘ he said.
New York Gov Andrew Cuomo joked last week that riders shouldn’t be alarmed if they smell a strange chemical odor on the subways in the weeks ahead.
‘It’s not bad cologne or perfume; it is bleach,’ Cuomo said.
Some New Yorkers (pictured in Manhattan) biked to work on Tuesday to avoid using the subway trains
This commuter chose to use his bike instead of his Metro card during New York City’s rush hour on Tuesday in Manhattan
Similar train cleaning measures have been put in place in other major cities hit by the outbreak.
Japan, like New York, has urged flexible working hours to reduce overcrowding on trains.
Italy added dispensers of hand disinfectant to trains run by state railways before restricting residents from traveling in parts of the country where the infection rate is highest.
In Seoul, South Korea, legions of workers in protective suits and goggles have been spraying down subway stations with disinfectant.
At some train stations, officials have also been using heat-detecting cameras to look for people who might have a fever.
Spokesmen for the Washington, DC, Metro and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, serving Philadelphia and its suburbs, said ridership levels didn’t appear to have been affected yet by virus-related concerns.
Uncertainty remains about what level of contact could be dangerous.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the virus can be spread when an infected person coughs or sneezes and the droplets are inhaled by someone nearby.
It also can be picked up by touching an infected surface or object and then touching the mouth or nose, though the CDC says that isn’t the main way the virus can spread.