New York governor Andrew Cuomo criticizes people playing basketball, not social distancing
New York governor Andrew Cuomo is not pleased with the way some of the state’s residents are handling the coronavirus outbreak, and he was once again highly critical of them on Sunday. One of the specific messages Cuomo delivered had to do with playing basketball.
Cuomo announced on Friday that all New Yorkers must stay home “to the maximum extent possible” beginning on Sunday night. The order bans all public gatherings of nonessential individuals, which is not much different from the guidelines that have already been in place. On Sunday, Cuomo demanded that residents take the coronavirus outbreak more seriously and ridiculed those who continue to take part in pickup basketball games.
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) March 22, 2020
“I play basketball. There’s no concept of social distancing while playing basketball,” Cuomo told reporters. “It doesn’t exist. You can’t stay six feet away from a person playing basketball. You can, but you’re a lousy basketball player and you’re gonna lose. You just cannot do that.”
Officials at the federal and state levels have been stressing the importance of social distancing for weeks, yet people continue to congregate at places like parks, basketball courts and beaches. We’ve seen more examples of that in the Los Angeles area.
WATCH LIVE: Many people across SoCal appear to be ignoring the “Stay at Home” order as they play basketball on Venice Beach and play apparent drinking games in Manhattan Beach. Similar scenes down in Newport and Huntington beaches. https://t.co/Oz7z2WRZBy pic.twitter.com/U0tGbpQy4R
— NBC Los Angeles (@NBCLA) March 22, 2020
Experts say the best way to slow the spread of the coronavirus and not overwhelm the health system is to practice social distancing. However, not everyone is taking that seriously, and we even saw one NFL player appear to openly defy the guidelines the White House has put in place.
