Fleeing New Yorkers raid Hamptons Stop & Shop leaving shelves bare

Tensions are rising in small towns where New York City residents have fled to escape the coronavirus hotspot as  locals complain of ransacked supermarkets and hospitals grow more and more crowded.  

So-called ‘coronavirus refugees’ have been leaving the Big Apple in droves, heading toward quiet communities where the threat of contracting the deadly bug is significantly lower. 

But full-time residents of those towns are pulling back their welcome mats, fearing that the influx of visitors will bring infection that much closer to their doorstep while overwhelming already stretched resources. 

Local leaders in a number of communities upstate and on Long Island have called for travel bans on refugees from New York City, citing a strain on the food supply and concerns that regional health systems will collapse.  

In the absence of such a ban, several counties have pleaded with visitors to stay away, while others are taking matters into their own hands by ordering mandatory quarantines for people coming in from coronavirus hot zones.  

 Tensions are rising in small towns where New York City residents have fled to escape the coronavirus hotspot as locals complain of ransacked supermarkets and hospitals grow more and more crowded. Pictured: A Stop & Shop store in East Hampton is overwhelmed by customers stocking up for self-isolation

Local leaders in a number of communities upstate and on Long Island have called for travel bans on refugees from New York City, citing a strain on the food supply. Pictured: Empty shelves at the East Hampton Stop & Shop

Local leaders in a number of communities upstate and on Long Island have called for travel bans on refugees from New York City, citing a strain on the food supply. Pictured: Empty shelves at the East Hampton Stop & Shop

So-called 'coronavirus refugees' have been leaving the Big Apple in droves, heading toward quiet communities where the threat of contracting the deadly bug is significantly lower. As of Tuesday morning, more than 38,000 people have tested positive for coronavirus and 914 have died in New York City

So-called ‘coronavirus refugees’ have been leaving the Big Apple in droves, heading toward quiet communities where the threat of contracting the deadly bug is significantly lower. As of Tuesday morning, more than 38,000 people have tested positive for coronavirus and 914 have died in New York City

In the Hamptons, full-time residents have flooded social media with photos of overcrowded grocery stores where shelves have been emptied by panic-buying customers stocking up for self-isolation.  

At a Stop & Shop in East Hampton on Sunday, the store was so busy that employees had to supervise lines to keep people six feet apart and put up barriers to protect cashiers. 

Describing the scene to Page Six, a source said: ‘It was way overcrowded, with some aisles having 20 or 30 people.

‘There was no social distancing … They sent security to one aisle and asked people to disperse.’ 

Long Island’s coveted beach towns have seen a surge in demand for rental homes. Some residents claim that property managers have asked them to leave so their homes could be rented out for a higher price to wealthy visitors from New York City. 

The leaders of four Hamptons communities wrote to Cuomo on Friday urging him to take action and ban residents coming to the East End. 

In Cape Cod, Massachusetts, another popular vacation destination among New Yorkers, full-time residents started a petition to close bridges to cars with out of state license plates. 

In Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Island, community leaders are discouraging second-home owners and other travelers from harder-hit areas from visiting the area, where hospitals are already reporting shortages in beds and supplies.  

In Cape Cod, Massachusetts, another popular vacation destination among New Yorkers, full-time residents started a petition to close bridges (such as the Sagamore Bridge, pictured) to cars with out of state license plates

In Cape Cod, Massachusetts, another popular vacation destination among New Yorkers, full-time residents started a petition to close bridges (such as the Sagamore Bridge, pictured) to cars with out of state license plates 

In upstate New York, county officials are considering enforcing 14-day quarantines for anyone entering their boundaries from coronavirus hot zones, namely New York City.   

Rensselaer County led the way by issuing a public health order on Friday requiring visitors arriving in the area to contact the local health department and self-quarantine for two weeks.  

Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin (pictured) has repeatedly called for New York Gov Andrew Cuomo to impose a travel ban on New York City residents

Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin (pictured) has repeatedly called for New York Gov Andrew Cuomo to impose a travel ban on New York City residents

Executive Steve McLaughlin, who has repeatedly called for New York Gov Andrew Cuomo to impose a travel ban on New York City residents, said he informed the governor’s office and New York Health Commissioner Dr Howard Zucker about the order before it was issued. 

He said Cuomo did not immediately respond, so they went ahead with the plan.  

‘Cuomo seized power in one of his executive orders … and vested it in the health department and the state health department. Prior to that, county health departments had wide latitude in state statute,’ McLaughlin told the Washington Examiner. 

‘It still remains in state statute, but he set it up in his mind so that we had to go to him and get permission. 

‘So, we did that. We said we don’t want people coming here, but if they are, we want a 14-day quarantine.’ 

And other county executives will likely follow suit, according to McLaughlin. 

‘We’re already getting calls from other counties wanting to do the same thing,’ he said.

Senior Cuomo advisor Rich Azzopardi later said that the Rensselaer public health order is unenforceable, and that counties have to follow what the state prescribes. 

The Rensselaer order went out around the same time that Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo issued an executive order forcing travelers from New York to quarantine for 14 days after visiting her state. 

The Rhode Island National Guard then went door-to-door rounding up out-of-towners in a move that was not received well by Cuomo, who threatened to sue.  

Raimondo backed down on Sunday and subsequently expanded the order to include ‘any person’ coming to Rhode Island from another state.

A member of the Rhode Island National Guard approaches a property to check for New Yorkers on Saturday after the state ordered mandatory quarantine for people visiting from the hard-hit state

A member of the Rhode Island National Guard approaches a property to check for New Yorkers on Saturday after the state ordered mandatory quarantine for people visiting from the hard-hit state

Drastic measures to keep out downstate visitors are warranted, McLaughlin says, because the vast majority of New York’s more than 66,400 cases are concentrated in southern counties.   

In Rensselaer County, which is located about two and a half hours north of New York City and has a population of roughly 150,000, currently has 52 positive COVID-19 cases.  

New York City, by comparison, has more than 38,000 cases and 914 deaths as of Tuesday morning – far more than any other city in the US.  

Of people fleeing the Big Apple for upstate, McLaughlin says: ‘The least that they can do is to self-quarantine for 14 days.’

‘The way I look at it, if they’re looking to escape, which clearly, they are, why would you risk infecting the very place that you escaped to?’ the former Republican state legislator continued.  

‘Eighty-four percent of the cases were in Westchester, Nassau, Suffolk, New York City, and Rockland counties. And if you add Putnam in, there it’s probably close to 88 percent or to 89 percent. 

‘It’s insanity to let those folks go freely.

‘They’re free to move about the state, of course, but I think it is common sense and just human decency to not infect the area that you’re going to, and I don’t think 14 days is a lot to ask.’ 

At least six of Renssalaer’s 52 confirmed coronavirus cases came from New York City residents who traveled to the county, according to local officials.  

In Columbia County, which is located about 125 miles north of Manhattan on the border of Massachusetts, about a third of the 36 confirmed cases were visitors from New York City, Public Health Director Jack Mabb said.  

The vast majority of New York's more than 66,400 cases are concentrated in southern counties

The vast majority of New York’s more than 66,400 cases are concentrated in southern counties

   

The influx of out-of-town infections has caused growing concern among county leaders that local hospital systems will be overwhelmed by patients.  

During a Facebook Live event on Monday, McLaughlin said healthcare facilities upstate will become ‘rapidly overrun’ if people keep traveling north from New York City and its hard-hit suburbs. 

Gov Cuomo announced that health systems across New York have agreed to a 'balanced approach' to handle the outbreak by moving patients from overstretched hospitals to less crowded ones on Monday

Gov Cuomo announced that health systems across New York have agreed to a ‘balanced approach’ to handle the outbreak by moving patients from overstretched hospitals to less crowded ones on Monday

‘Our health system will be in trouble,’ McLaughlin said.  

He made the comments after Gov Cuomo announced that health systems across New York have agreed to a ‘balanced approach’ to handle the outbreak by moving patients from overstretched hospitals to less crowded ones.  

Referencing the surge of patients at New York City’s public and private hospitals, Cuomo said: ‘We have hospitals in upstate New York that are experiencing none of this — where they have staff capacity, they have bed capacity.

‘We need you now, here in this fight and engaged, and that’s a totally different concept [for hospitals].’

But McLaughlin and other county leaders aren’t fully on board with the state-led plan, fearing that it could heighten the risk of COVID-19 exposure in their communities and would take up space in hospitals that may later be needed for local residents.  

Asked his reaction to the plan after Cuomo’s announcement, Columbia County Public Health Director Jack Mabb told local radio station WGXC 90.7: ‘I’m concerned because my job is to be concerned about Columbia County residents, and if somebody needs a ventilator and all the ventilators are full at the hospital, I’m concerned about it.’

However, Mabb conceded that the plan ‘makes sense to some degree’ – and it appears to already be in motion. 

McLaughlin said Rensselaer County had received ‘confirmation from a reliable source’ on Monday that ‘potentially a bus load’ of patients had been transferred from downstate hospitals to Albany Medical Center.

Asked to confirm that statement, Albany Med spokeswoman Sue Ford told the Times Union: ‘We have no information on this at this time.’  

As case counts in New York exploded last week, Cuomo issued an order requiring all hospitals in the state to increase their capacity by at least 50 percent, with a goal of 100 percent. 

At the time, officials at Columbia Memorial Hospital in Hudson said they would be able to ‘very rapidly’ boost its staffed bed capacity by at least 65 percent. 

Chief medical officer Clifford Belden told a news conference that the hospital could ‘go well beyond’ that number with a little more time and ‘some additional help’ from the state.  

The hospital, which is part of the Albany Medical Center system and serves both Columbia and Greene counties, generally has six to seven ICU beds staffed at any given time, according to Belden.

‘We will be able to likely more than double that with our surge plan,’ he said.  

On Monday Mabb announced that Columbia County’s Office of Emergency Management had also identified 11 buildings that could be converted into temporary medical facilities if necessary.   

Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus said vacation rental companies such as Airbnb are making matters worse by attempting to draw more visitors from out of town to their properties. 

‘Airbnb are advertising: “Get out of the apocalypse. Leave New York City. Leave downstate. Rent a home,”‘ Neuhaus told the Examiner. 

He said executives from at 62 counties in New York participate in a nightly phone call about the coronavirus crisis.  

‘It’s a big discussion every night, because upstate New York, the further you are, the more upset the county execs are getting,’ he said.    

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