A group of golfers have been pictured enjoying a day on the course in New York Monday after families hit the beach in Long Island despite the statewide lockdown.
Images obtained by the DailyMail.com show the friends – who appear to be drinking beers – at the Island End Golf and Country Club Orient, Long Island on Monday.
The club has said they are open in a statement on their website, telling members: ‘The Golf Course is OPEN amidst the current health scare. We are continuously sanitizing high traffic areas.’
Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday hit out at what he called ‘a laxness in social distancing’, adding: ‘There has been a laxness on social distancing, especially over this past weekend, that is just wholly unacceptable. People are dying.’
Cuomo warned Sunday of a shift in cases to Long Island, telling reporters at his daily briefing: ‘There is a shift to Long Island. Upstate New York is basically flat and as Long Island grows the percentage of cases in New York City has reduced.’
Small coastal towns there have taken in an influx of NYC’s elite fleeing the coronavirus epidemic. Pictures show families enjoying walks on the beach in Orient on Monday.
Images obtained by the DailyMail.com show the friends – who appear to be drinking beers – at the Island End Golf and Country Club Orient, Long Island on Monday
The club has said they are open in a statement on their website, telling members: ‘The Golf Course is OPEN amidst the current health scare. We are continuously sanitizing high traffic areas.’ The group appeared to congregate in the parking lot Monday
The exodus of the Big Apple’s residents has caused some locals in these ‘refugee’ towns to demand city dwellers stay away from their vulnerable towns for fear they may bring the deadly infection.
Rensselaer county executive Steve McLaughlin appealed to Governor Andrew Cuomo to ban travel from New York City to other parts of the state to no avail and mandated that anyone coming upstate from the city must contact local officials and be subjected to a 14-day quarantine.
‘You get a lot of people who are just plain scared who say: “Keep them out, keep them out,”‘ he said.
On Monday, Cuomo announced that the death rate had flattened for the second day in a row and that the number of new cases was also slowing, which are both ‘good signs’ that suggest New York might have hit its apex.
He shared data which showed hospitalizations are thousands less than the 50,000 or 110,00 that models predicted, but warned New Yorkers they were not free and clear of the virus, saying: ‘Now is not the time to take our foot off the gas.’
There are now 130,689 cases of coronavirus in New York – an increase of 8,568 in a day. The death toll has risen from 4,159 to 4,758, an increase of 599 which is less than in previous days this week.
Cuomo said no matter what the evidence showed, he had no choice but to extend social distancing, saying: ‘If that curve is turning, it’s turning and it’s going down because social distancing is working.’
He increased the fine for anyone who is caught from $500 to $1,000.
‘The weather is turning. People have been locked up. Now it’s, “it’s a nice day. I’m going to get out and take a walk.” Now is not the time to do that’, Cuomo added.
‘There has been a laxness on social distancing, especially over this past weekend, that is just wholly unacceptable.
‘People are dying. People in the healthcare system are exposing themselves every day to tremendous risk.
‘If you get infected, you infect someone else and they go to an ER and put a burden on all sorts of people who frankly, you don’t have the right to burden with your lack of responsibility.
‘The level of activity is up. Now is not the time to be laxed. It’s a mistake.
‘We all have a responsibility. We all have a role in this,’ he said.
The statewide balance of coronavirus cases has been ‘relatively stable’ over the past few days, Cuomo said, but officials were tracking what they called a shift to Long Island. Nassau and Suffolk counties together have more than 26,000 cases.
Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday hit out at what he called ‘a laxness in social distancing’, adding: ‘There has been a laxness on social distancing, especially over this past weekend, that is just wholly unacceptable. People are dying’
One golfer appeared to be practicing his swing on Monday while others congregated nearby in the parking lot
Families hit the beach in Orient, Long Island. Cuomo announced schools and nonessential businesses will remain closed until April 29 and that the maximum fine for violations of state social distancing protocol will soon be $1,000, up from $500.
But there are signs the surge might be slowing. The number of new people entering hospitals daily has dropped, as have the number of new patients requiring ventilators.
Recent data suggests the state could be at or near the peak, meaning fewer hospital beds would be needed in the coming weeks than the most dire projections had indicated, according to state officials.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy sounded a similar note Monday, saying the curve ‘is beginning, and I use that word cautiously, is beginning to flatten.’
Cuomo called the data hopeful but inconclusive, and warned it was no time the relax rules designed to cut down on transmission.
He announced schools and nonessential businesses will remain closed until April 29 and that the maximum fine for violations of state social distancing protocol will soon be $1,000, up from $500.
‘This virus has kicked our rear end. And we underestimate this virus at our own peril. We’ve learned that lesson,’ Cuomo told a news briefing at the state Capitol. ‘Now is not the time to slack off on what we’re doing.’
Sun seekers were also spotted swimming at beaches across the Hamptons
Famililes were spotted on a beach in The Hamptons as they hunkered down in the wealthy enclave during the coronavirus outbreak
A Siena College poll released Monday found that most New York state residents say they are either quarantining themselves or social-distancing. But Cuomo complained about a ‘laxness’ in social distancing as the weeks of isolation wear on and the weather gets warmer. Orient State Park pictured Monday
Cuomo called the data hopeful but inconclusive, and warned it was no time the relax rules designed to cut down on transmission. Orient State Park pictured Monday
A Siena College poll released Monday found that most New York state residents say they are either quarantining themselves or social-distancing. But Cuomo complained about a ‘laxness’ in social distancing as the weeks of isolation wear on and the weather gets warmer.
Cuomo stressed that even if New York has reached the peak, numbers could persist at these levels, which would continue to stress struggling hospitals.
″This is a hospital system where we have the foot to the floor and the engine is at red line and you can’t go any faster and, by the way, you can’t stay at red line for any period of time or the system will blow,’ Cuomo said.
People were also spotted cycling in groups across the Hamptons