New York City Coronavirus Update: Cases Surpass 10,000 in U.S. Epicenter, Governor Says Density Level is 'Destructive'

Cases of a new coronavirus in New York City have surpassed 10,000, making it the largest outbreak in the country.

Monday marked the first day the state of New York was on PAUSE, a 10-point policy plan to keep residents at home. Ahead of the plan's enactment, Governor Andrew Cuomo warned that New York City still appeared to be "life as usual," and called its density level "destructive."

"It has to stop and it has to stop now," Cuomo posted on Twitter Sunday. "NYC must develop an immediate plan to reduce density."

Of the 35,224 cases in the United States, a tracker maintained by Johns Hopkins University reported 10,764 were in New York City. As of Monday morning, 99 people in New York City have died, the largest number of deaths in a single city or town in the country. Outside of New York City, there have been more than 1,000 cases in Suffolk, Nassau and Westchester.

New York City has more cases than South Korea, Switzerland and the United Kingdom and, Mayor Bill de Blasio called the city the "epicenter" of the outbreak in the U.S. He noted that people over 70, a vulnerable group, represent 35 percent of COVID-19 hospitalizations but only 10 percent of the city's population. To protect those who are at a higher risk of serious disease or death, the mayor told all residents to limit physical contact with other people whenever possible.

PAUSE went into effect Sunday at 8 p.m. and closed all non-essential businesses in an attempt to keep people at home. It also barred non-essential gatherings of any size and limited outdoor exercise to only those activities that could be done with proper spacing from others, such as hiking or running.

For the time being, playgrounds are still able to be used, but de Blasio said that keeping them open is dependent on families using them responsibly. If crowds gather or people are close together, their availability could change.

For weeks, people have been stocking up on groceries and rumors of a lockdown prompted long lines and empty shelves at stores throughout the city. However, they are considered essential under the city's PAUSE plan, so people may come and go from the grocery store freely. Cuomo told people to not "linger" on their errands.

Along with implementing measures to limit the spread of the virus among residents, New York will be releasing inmates from its jails to reduce their risk of exposure. Twenty-three people were released on Sunday, according to de Blasio, and an additional 200 people who have less than 90 days left in their sentences were being evaluated for release.

Their release came after Jacqueline Sherman, interim chair of the Board of Corrections, sent a letter to eight New York City criminal justice leaders. She requested that they immediately remove everyone from jail who are at high risk, including those over 50 years old and people with underlying health conditions.

At least 12 Department of Corrections employees, five Correctional Health Services employees and 21 people in custody tested positive for the virus as of Friday, according to Sherman. Those people had likely been in "hundreds" of housing and common area and been in close contact with others.

She called the 40 people de Blasio identified for potential release "far from sufficient" to protect against the spread and claimed DOC's and CHS' "best efforts" wouldn't be enough to prevent an outbreak in Rikers Island and other borough jails. To reduce the number of people who could be exposed, she advocated for the release of those detained for a technical violation of parole, such as missing curfew or a meeting with a parole officer or testing positive for drugs, and those serving a city sentence of under one year.

Officials at local, state and federal levels have warned that the next week is crucial in determining the trajectory of the outbreak. If people's behaviors limit their exposure and therefore the number of cases, it could flatten the curve and give key players, such as hospitals, time to respond. But, if there's a spike in cases, health care systems could be overwhelmed and unable to properly care for the number of patients they receive.

"We're facing another week of the unknown. But we'll confront it with the same grit that New Yorkers do every time we have a challenge," de Blasio said. "We'll get through this together."