New York and California imposed tough new restrictions, limiting the activity of 60 million people in the two states to curb the spread of the coronavirus and ordering all non-essential workers to stay home.

In announcing Friday’s action, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo pleaded for more medical personnel and supplies to treat coronavirus cases that could overwhelm the hospitals in his state of nearly 20 million.

“This is the most drastic action we can take,” Cuomo said in announcing he would issue an executive order to mandate that 100 per cent of the non-essential workforce stay home and all non-essential businesses close.

“Remain indoors, go outside for solitary exercise,” he said.

New York City’s Central Park was quiet but by no means empty on a cloudy spring day a few hours after Cuomo’s announcement.

Several bikers and joggers were on the pathways, most alone but a few in pairs. The baseball diamonds, which would be fought over by school teams in season any other year, were empty.

“It’s real and it’s scary, I hate it,” said physical therapist Kerry Cashin, 49, of the stay-at-home order. “I feel like I always knew it was going to go this way, but it made me scared.”

Gabriel Stellar, a 29-year-old insurance broker, said he had been the only one going into his office for the last several days and he lived close by. “Now I just won’t,” he said.

Stellar agreed with Cuomo’s order. “How much worse can it really get beyond ‘stay at home’?” he asked.

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Life upended

The coronavirus pandemic that has swept the globe has also upended life in much of the United States in the past week, shuttering schools and businesses, prompting millions to work from home, forcing many out of jobs and curtailing travel.

In Berkeley, California, many more people were out walking their dogs, running and biking than on a usual weekday morning, with pedestrians avoiding passing one another on the narrow sidewalks by veering onto the nearly empty street.

The health orders imposed on Thursday by California authorities on the state’s 40 million people also allow for outside exercise as long as people stay six feet (two meters) apart.