NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio Has Park Basketball Hoops Removed During Quarantine

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday the city will remove basketball hoops at parks where pick-up games continued despite social-distancing guidelines as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. 

"There will not be any basketball games because there will not be any basketball hoops," De Blasio told reporters.

He said the sites would be determined based on areas where "repeated attempts" to stop the games have failed, and it could become a more widespread effort if necessary.

"If we have to end up closing down basketball courts across the board, we'll do that," De Blasio said.

Eric Levenson of CNN reported New York City has become the "epicenter" of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States for a multitude of reasons, including its high density of residents and the significant tourism levels that likely brought the coronavirus to NYC before other American cities.

"We have international travelers who were in China and who were in Italy and who were in Korea and who came here," New York governor Andrew Cuomo said. "And I have no doubt that the virus was here much earlier than we even know. And I have no doubt that the virus was here much earlier than it was in any other state. Because those people come here first."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released guidelines suggesting people remain at least six feet away from each other in order to reduce the spread of the disease.

In addition, at least 22 states have issued stay-at-home orders to increase the social-distancing efforts.