To the Editor:

Re “Italian Officials Sequester North in ‘Emergency’” (front page, March 8):

The lockdown in northern Italy is an aggressive measure to control a virus that causes mild illness in 80 percent or more of those infected. However, I’d estimate that about one out of three Americans is elderly or has a chronic condition that puts them at high risk for Covid-19. Clamping down on this infection is needed to save lives, to avoid overwhelming our health care system, and to avoid the social and economic consequences of a lockdown.

As we ramp up the number of tests performed in the United States, we may find that our caseload is only a week or so behind the Italians. If we continue business as usual, we may find it necessary to lock down the epicenters of disease activity, currently the Seattle area and Westchester County, N.Y.

We have a collective responsibility to protect our communities. Mastering hand hygiene and cough etiquette, cutting back on nonessential travel, and canceling large group events should become the new normal until we find medications or vaccines to control this virus. We have no time to waste.

Kenneth Croen

White Plains, N.Y.

The writer is an infectious diseases specialist.

To the Editor:

Re “‘It Will End’: Trump Urges Nation to Avoid Panicking” (news article, March 7):

I am deeply concerned that our president has given greater priority to his own political image and welfare rather than that of our country. We have a nation fearful about the coronavirus and the lack of adequate testing, and all he can do is fly off to Florida to play golf, attack the Democratic governors of the states affected by the virus and try to maintain a low number of cases by recommending, unsuccessfully, that cruise ship passengers not disembark on American soil.