NEW YORK (AP) – A major snowstorm rolled in the northeast on Wednesday at a key time in the coronavirus pandemic, days after the start of the US vaccination campaign and in the midst of a wave of viruses this involves crowds of people looking for tests every day.
In the afternoon snow fell from northern Virginia to points north of New York City. The storm was about to drop up to 0.6 meters of snow in some places before Thursday, and the pandemic added new complexities to officials’ preparations: deciding whether to close test sites, finding out how to handle plowing in an outdoor dining room . platforms on the streets of New York City, redefining school snow days to mean another day of learning from home, and more.
“Our theme today should be,‘ If it’s not one thing, it’s another, ’” said New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who was giving residents a storm guidance that’s new this year: masked -se if you help your neighbors to talk.
Still, officials said they did not expect the winter explosion to disrupt the distribution of vaccines, which began Monday for front-line health workers, the first U.S. group to receive the shots. The first 3 million shots are strictly limited to those workers and residents of the residences.
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar said Wednesday that the government is closely monitoring vaccine shipments, which already has staff to receive them, and believes companies carrying them can navigate the U.S. storm.
“It’s FedEx, it’s UPS express shipping. They know how to deal with snow and bad weather. But we’re there and we’re following it, ”he told Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends.
With 35 vaccine deliveries at New Jersey hospitals scheduled for the next day or two, Murphy said his administration was focused on making sure they continued, even exempting vaccine delivery trucks from the traffic ban. storm-related commercial on some highways. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the first shipment of vaccines from his state had already been distributed to about 90 hospitals, and the next delivery should not be made until about Tuesday, long after the storm.
The National Weather Service said the storm “was destined to cause an overabundance of hazards from the mid-northeast Atlantic,” including icy rain and ice in the mid-Atlantic area, heavy snow in the area. New York and southern New England, strong winds and coastal flooding, and possibly even strong thunderstorms and some tornadoes on the outer banks of North Carolina.
In Virginia, the salvo of snow, sleet and freezing rain brought power to several thousand homes and businesses on Wednesday afternoon. State police said as of 3 p.m., officers had responded to approximately 200 crashes, including a shipwreck on Interstate 81 that killed a North Carolina man.
The heaviest snowfall was expected in central Pennsylvania, where forecasts for the state capital Harrisburg said a record six decades of December snowfall could be broken. But some areas, from West Virginia to Maine, could get a foot (0.3 meters) of snow, for some, more than they saw all last winter. In New York City, officials prepared for the biggest storm in three years.
“Take this seriously,” Blasio’s mayor warned neighbors.
In addition to the usual deployment of plows and salt spreaders, the country’s most populous city added to its list some pandemic-era preparations, such as closing the city’s test sites on Wednesday afternoon and suspend outdoor dining in the sometimes elaborate spaces that now occupy parking spaces outside some restaurants.
Restaurants are not required to demolish their wooden fences and other outdoor dining structures, currently the only form of restaurant table service allowed in the city. But they are being asked to secure outdoor furniture, remove heaters and take other steps to make way for the plows. The city’s snow removal chief, sanitation commissioner Ed Grayson, said the agency had been planning and training since the summer to maneuver around the structures.
De Blasio also announced that Thursday would also be a snow day – 2020 style – for the country’s largest school district. School buildings will be closed, but students are expected to go to class online (many will do so anyway, as currently middle and high schools are all online and many families have opted for totally remote learning).
“I know we’ve all grown up with the excitement of snow days, but this year is different,” the mayor tweeted.
Meanwhile, Rhode Island closed state-run coronavirus testing sites on Thursday.
___
Associated Press writers Tom Hays in New York; Wayne Parry in Point Pleasant, New Jersey; Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey; Skip Foreman in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Philip Marcelo in Boston and Dino Hazell in Washington collaborated.