Choosing to go elsewhere, however, is economically prohibitive for most expectant mothers in New York. Leaving aside the cost of a flight or car rental, not everyone has family in another state with spacious, free lodging. Many women still have jobs and family connections in New York, as well as rent or mortgage payments they must meet.

And for lower-income families, leaving isn’t even a consideration, said Eugenia Montesinos, the co-chairwoman of NYC Midwives, a professional association.

“They don’t even think about that,” said Montesinos, who sees women at NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan, a city hospital in East Harlem. “They’re going to be thinking about: ‘How am I going to pay my rent? How am I going to get something to eat?’”

While some ob-gyns have been supportive of their patients’ decisions to leave the New York area, there are risks involved in traveling, especially late in a pregnancy. Public health experts recommend avoiding nonessential travel to reduce your potential exposure to the virus and the risk of inadvertently infecting others.

“Delivering in a system that has provided you with all your prenatal care and knows you is more optimal,” said Dr. Mary E. D’Alton, the chief obstetrician and gynecologist at the NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center in Manhattan. “We now have probably the best firsthand information about Covid and how obstetric patients are responding to this virus, and quite honestly, other centers in the United States are looking to us to give guidance on what we are doing.”

She estimated that fewer than 5 percent of the pregnant patients in her practice have left.

And there’s no guarantee that another area won’t eventually see a surge in coronavirus cases, she added.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said in a statement on Monday that pregnant women in America should feel comfortable delivering babies in any licensed and accredited U.S. hospital.