NY tightens grip on businesses during coronavirus

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday issued an executive order limiting businesses to 50 percent of their employees to work from outside of their homes.

Freddie Joyner has more.

(SOUNBITE) (ENGLISH) NEW YORK GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO, SAYING: "Today we are announcing a mandatory state-wide requirement, that no business can have more than 50 percent of their workforce report to work outside of their home." That was New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday introducing new mandatory regulation for the state that is seeing a spike in cases of the coronavirus as more testing becomes available.

As of Wednesday, New York City alone had over 1,300 cases of the virus, and the state saw 1000 new cases overnight.

The state-wide executive order excludes essential services such as food, pharmacies and healthcare.

The new mandate comes after a 'shelter in place' scenario that the governor and NYC mayor Bill Di Blasio sparred over on Tuesday… (SOUNBITE) (ENGLISH) NEW YORK GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO, SAYING: "I don't believe any policy works unless the geographic footprint is large enough...Shelter in place, you close down your healthcare system, you close down your food system, you close down your transportation system...so that doesn't make sense to me because people have to eat, travel, etc." During his news conference, Cuomo also announced that President Trump would be dispatching a hospital ship - the US Comfort - that would dock in New York Harbor and give New York a much-needed helping hand... (SOUNBITE) (ENGLISH) NEW YORK GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO, SAYING: "...it has about 1,000 rooms on it, it has operating rooms, But it is literally a floating hospital that will add capacity, and the president has said that he will dispatch that immediately."