TIM SULLIVAN and NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press
New York state joined California on Friday in ordering nearly all residents to stay home, as governors watched with growing alarm as southern Europe buckled under the strain of the coronavirus outbreak.
"We're going to close the valve, because the rate of increase in the number of cases portends a total overwhelming of our hospital system," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said as cases in the state climbed to more than 7,000.
Cuomo said is he directing all workers in nonessential businesses to stay home and banning gatherings statewide. The move came after California, the nation's most populous state, with some 40 million people, all but confined its population in the biggest lockdown in the U.S.
The increasingly drastic measures in the U.
