Coronavirus: new york city weighs closing parks, playgrounds and streets to enforce social distancing, gov. Cuomo says

New York state and city officials plan to close some streets in the nation's largest city and may close parks and playgrounds there to contain the coronavirus outbreak as cases across

the state surge to 30,811, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday. State and local officials are taking a tougher line to enforce social distancing recommendations. He said city residents

aren't following the state's guidelines encouraging people to maintain a distance of at least 6 feet from each other, which he said was "effective and necessary" to slow

hospitalization rates. "The plan is going to pilot closing streets in New York City because we have much less traffic in New York City. We have many fewer vehicles in New York

City," he said at a press conference in Albany. He said that by opening the streets, fewer people will congregate in the parks. "People want to walk. They want to go out and get

some air. You want a less dense area, so pilot closing streets to cars, opening streets to pedestrians." An empty playground is viewed on March 24, 2020 in New York City. Angela Weiss |

AFP via Getty Images The state's hospitalization rate is "moving faster than initial estimates," he said, adding that health officials project that 140,000 people will be

hospitalized with the coronavirus over the next 14 to 21 days. The state previously said it would need 110,000 beds for COVID-19 patients by early to mid-May. More than 3,800 people have

already been hospitalized with COVID-19 across the state and 888 are in the ICU, Cuomo said. The Army Corps of Engineers is building several temporary hospitals to house up to 4,000 COVID-19

patients throughout the state, which has just 53,000 hospital beds. That still won't be enough., the governor said. He also estimates the state will need 40,000 ICU beds at the peak of

the outbreak. It currently has only 3,000. Cuomo encouraged residents to seek out counseling if they are feeling anxious, adding that the state has more than 6,000 mental health

professionals on hand and is setting up a mental health hotline for residents. People shouldn't "underestimate" the impact of "emotional trauma," he said. A chart

showing the Most Impacted States in the U.S. affected by Covid-19. New York State The city is the epicenter of a major outbreak in New York state, where cases have been doubling every three

days and now account for more than half of all U.S. cases. New York City accounts for 17,856 cases. Cuomo said health officials have tested 103,470 people across the state, including 44,076

in the city. The state has already spent $1 billion fighting the pandemic and estimates it will cost roughly $15 billion total, Cuomo said.  The $2 trillion federal stimulus deal Congress

reached early Wednesday carves out $3.8 billion for New York state, which Cuomo said won't be enough. "The hole is as high as $15 billion. How do you plug a $15 billion hole with

$3.8 billion? You don't," he said. White House officials on Tuesday urged anyone leaving the New York City metropolitan area to self-isolate and monitor themselves carefully for 14

days. President Donald Trump called the region a "hot spot" for coronavirus cases. "We remain deeply concerned about New York City and the New York metro area," Dr.

Deborah Birx, the White House's coronavirus response coordinator, said at a press briefing Tuesday. She said about 56% of all U.S. cases and 31% of all fatalities in the United States

are concentrated in the metropolitan area. The New York metro area, which includes New Jersey, Long Island and southern Connecticut, also has the highest "attack rate" in the

country with nearly 1 in 1,000 people in the region contracting the virus. The attack rate is the portion of the population that gets infected. Cuomo said Tuesday that the "troubling

and astronomical" number of cases has increased the urgency across the state for more hospital beds as the outbreak spreads "unabated."