Rockland Officials, Residents Pore Over Coronavirus Hot Spot Map

ROCKLAND COUNY, NY — Rockland County officials are poring over the coronavirus hot spot map released by the state late Tuesday afternoon, marking the areas where schools and nonessential businesses will have to shut down by Friday to keep the virus from spreading further.

SEE: Cuomo Closes Schools, Businesses In Rockland, Orange Hot Spots

What appears as orange on the map (see above or this high-resolution PDF the county put on its website) is in fact the red zone, Rockland County officials said, fielding 100 comments on Facebook in an evening post that was also widely shared.

The red zone includes New Square, Hillcrest, Monsey, Kaser and part of Spring Valley. The zone is bordered on the northwest by Route 306 and on the northeast by the Palisades Parkway.

The red zone includes neighborhoods where the highest density of cases have been confirmed. The new rules close all schools, shut down all but essential businesses, allow only takeout from restaurants and limit houses of worship to a maximum of 10 people. Mass gatherings are prohibited.

The outer buffer is the yellow zone. There, houses of worship are limited to 50 percent capacity and mass gatherings are limited to a maximum of 25 people. Also, schools in that zone must do weekly coronavirus testing.

Areas outside of New York City do not have the middle, orange zone described by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in his afternoon briefing.

Rockland County Executive Ed Day said his office hoped to send notices to businesses, organizations and schools in the red and yellow zones Wednesday warning them of the shutdown.

Law enforcement personnel from local police and the Rockland County Sheriff's Office are expected to coordinate under state supervision to enforce the new rules until the outbreak subsides.