NY to begin aggressive enforcement of health orders: Cuomo

New York, Oct 5 New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has said that the state will begin an "aggressive" enforcement of health orders in Covid-19 hotspots from Monday onwards as infection rates in these areas have continued to spike.

In a conference call on Sunday, the Governor said that total of 20 ZIP codes located in Brooklyn, Queens, and Rockland and Orange Counties now have 21 per cent of the state's confirmed Covid-19 cases, CNYCentral reported.

As of Sunday, those areas have an infection rate of 4.8 per cent , Cuomo said, adding that New York state's overall srate currently stood at 0.9 per cent.

"Local governments have not done an effective job of enforcement in these hot spot ZIP codes. The State will be doing aggressive enforcement starting tomorrow.

"As we saw with bars and restaurants, when the State initiated enforcement actions compliance greatly increased," CNYCentral quoted the Governor as saying in the call.

Businesses found to violate the new orders will be fined and closed, he said, adding the state will close all business activity in areas where local governments cannot perform effective enforcement.

Cuomo also said that if localities do not increase their testing, schools in those areas will be ordered to shut down.

"I'm concerned about the lack of testing in the schools. If the localities do not do testing immediately in the schools in those areas, the state will close them immediately.

"I have assured the parents of this state that I would not send my child to a school that I didn't know was safe. Without testing we can't assure parents and teachers of the safety of that school," he added.

Once the epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic in the US, New York state has reported more than 469,000 Covid-19 cases, of which New York City accounted for over 251,000.

The death toll in the state stood at 32,813.

As of Monday, the US continued as the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 7,420,779 and 209,821, respectively, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

( With inputs from IANS )