New York City introduces text line for coronavirus updates

At a press conference this afternoon, Mayor de Blasio informed New Yorkers that they can text COVID to 692 692 to receive updates on the coronavirus from the city. He also said that, as of now, the city’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade is scheduled to go on as planned on Tuesday, March 17th, as is the New York City Half Marathon this Sunday.

At the time of publication, the latest case numbers for New York City are:

• 20 confirmed cases — 8 of which are new since yesterday
• 205 negative tests
• 86 pending tests
• 24 people in mandatory quarantine
• 2,019 people in voluntary isolation

Of the eight new cases, one is a seven-year-old girl in the Bronx who attends Torah Academy in Westchester (she is the youngest person in New York to test positive) and another is the Port Authority’s Executive Director Rick Cotton. Cotton’s wife, president of the Central Park Conservancy Elizabeth W. Smith, has also tested positive.

At the time of the announcement, around 3:00pm today, 20,000 people had signed up for the new text alerts. In addition to the text line, New Yorkers can get updates here >>

You can watch Mayor de Blasio’s full press conference:

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