Nassau Declares Coronavirus 'Imminent Threat To Public Health'

MINEOLA, NY — At a press conference today, Nassau County Executive Laura Curran announced that she was declaring the new coronavirus an "imminent threat to public health" in the county. She also said an upcoming family event at Nassau Coliseum will be canceled.

The declaration, Curran said, will allow the county greater access to resources as the disease continues, and is the first step to a declaration of emergency, if that's needed in the future.

"We are doing this as precautionary measure to access greater resources for the county and its residents," Curran said. "We will move to a county declaration of emergency, where necessary, and will coordinate with individual towns, cities and villages."

In addition to the declaration, Curran said that the Jurrasic World Live show scheduled to begin tonight and run through March 22 is being cancelled, at the county's request. There were 17 performances of the show scheduled.

"We expected many grandparents to attend with their grandchildren, and we do not want the virus to spread at this event," said Curran. It's unclear if those who purchased tickets will be able to receive refunds.

Curran said their could be a "large" economic impact to the county if it is forced to cancel other events at the Coliseum, but said that preventing the virus from spreading will help the economy more in the long run.

"We're concerned about the local economy. We're concerned about our businesses taking a hit," Curran said. "But what we have to do to stop the economic impact from getting even worse is to contain this, which is why we're taking the step we're taking today."

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Nassau County continues to have the highest number of cases on Long Island, now reaching 41. One of those is in serious condition, county officials said at a press conference Thursday, and 10 people are currently hospitalized. One of the patients in Nassau County is an 81-year-old woman who was living at Bristal Assisted Living at North Hills. Officials said she is hospitalized, but that she is not the patient in critical condition.

Suffolk county saw its cases jump, going to 20, bringing the total on Long Island to 61. There are 471 people in mandatory or precautionary quarantine in Nassau, and at least 16 in mandatory quarantine in Suffolk.

More on the coronavirus

• Coronavirus United States: Updates For Thursday, March 12
• Coronavirus On Long Island: 46 Cases, Hundreds In Quarantine