New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio addressed the media on Thursday in response to the COVID-19 outbreak that has been handled much differently since Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert preliminarily tested positive for the disease on Wednesday.
Mayor de Blasio has declared a state of emergency in New York City.
Andrew Cuomo, Governor of the state of New York, has placed a ban on gatherings of more than 500 people for the foreseeable future, according to CNBC. Given de Blasio could see this being a six-month crisis, the mayor could see both Barclays Center and Madison Square Garden closed for months.
de Blasio said regular updates will be provided, but majors changes from day-to-day should be expected. He also opened his press conference by saying:
The last 24 hours have been very, very sobering. Literally, yesterday morning feels like a long time ago. We got a lot of information in the course of a day yesterday and a lot changed then, then last night it just seemed the world turned upside down in the course of just a few hours.