being carried by state troopers three hours to the only lab in new york certified to do the tests. since then, another 28 labs have been approved. what are some of the question, siobahn that you get from some of these families. >> the number one question is when will i have my test results? when will i be off of quarantine. a lot of them, is there a letter you can give to me for my employer? >> reporter: the answers are up to three days for the results, 14 days in quarantine, and a patient can show his employer the official quarantine order left by the nurses. there must be people who say oh, i can't be quarantined for 14 days. i have a business trip to detroit next week. >> right. >> and you tell them? >> you must. >> you must? >> yeah. we're asking you to stay home for 14 days also pending the results of your labs. we're asking you not to go to work, not to go to school, not

to go food shopping. to gte a breath of fresh air, you're allowed to go in your backyard but don't go within six feet of anyone. >> reporter: this last week edward cuomo closed theaters. he ordered bars and restaurants to operate at half capacity. >> we have to get down the rate of infection. and the only two ways to do that is to test, test, test, find the positive, isolate the positive. stop the contagion by reducing the densely. just reduce the ability of the virus to spread. >> reporter: from the early data, it aearshat t sytoms. so why is ito take es measures? if we did nothing, yes, 80% would contract the virus. they would self-resolve.

some people would require hospitalization. and we could overwhelm the hospital system, and those vulnerable people who needed the intensive care wouldn't get it. >> reporter: but part of the cost is an economic crisis. markets rose friday but not before the dow industrials suffered its most rapid fall from a record high to a bear market since november 1931. the great depression. >> the airplanes are flying empty. i was at jfk airport yesterday. it was almost abandoned it looked to be. you have cut the capacity of every restaurant in new york city in half. these are real costs to the economy. >> what value do you put on human life? what value do you put on human life? and we say here it's invaluable. and if you say, well, we're

going to lose 5,000 more people, i say close the restaurants. i say close the stores. i don't want to lose 5,000 more people. if you do not slow the spread, the health care system can be overwhelmed. and more people will die. >> reporter: new york state spent $30 million just this past week on its virus mobilization. in westchester county, sixty nurses and emts are dismissed from a center hastily set up. >> just so you know, our team is 17. >> that man is a forest ranger. they're pulling in staff from 20 state agencies. when we were there, 222 homes had been visited. 639 were waiting with more added all the time.

county health commissioner dr. sherlita andler are questioning everyone who may have had contact with that patient. >> where did they travel to? what do they do for a living? where do they work? what kind of work do they do. if there are children in family, where do they go to school? what about their social life? did they have any parties? did they travel? >> this is what she's trying to avoid. in italy, there were too many patients too fast. the hospitals were overreturn. slowing the virus in america buys time. >> why do we need time? because we do not have a vaccine currently to prevent this disease. we do not have an antiviral to treat this disease. so if we can slow it down and the fewer people infected, we'll have feweraths. >> reporter: most of westchester

county's quarantine in the city of new rochelle. here the state has imposed what it calls a containment zone. mayor bram told us the center of his sown the synagogue visited by that fist patient. >> the containent zone has a one mile radius. to be very clear, because there is a lot of confusion about this, it is not a quarantine zone. it's not an exclusion zone. it is an area in which large gatherings in large institutions are prohibited. which means no mor 0 people. >> so it affects schools public and private. it affects houses of worship or the local country club. but it doesn't have an effect on businesses. no one is prohibited from entering or leaving. it's not as though this area is on lockdown. >> reporter: maybe not the area, but this lock is on the gate of new rochelle's high school. the nearby middle school was being sanitized. and this is a bank in west

chester's containment .ltn you ye yeah. >> reporter: tamara had contact. she is quarantined at home. hold are your children? >> 3, 5, 7, 10. >> reporter: how long have you been behind the gate here? >> a week. >> reporter: what is that light? >> a little business crazy, but i love them. we're good. we're good there. >> i'm usually much friendlier about this. we have about 10 feet or so. and that's what we're told we have to do to avoid any contact. >> we'll (woman) my son and his wife and my beautiful grandkids. my family is such a blessing to me. but i don't want my funeral expenses to be a burden to them. hi, i'm jonathan, a manager here at coloal penn life insurance company. to them. if you're like many folks age 50 to 85, you've thought about life insurance so your funeral and final expenses

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align, press and unzip. tide pods. keep them up. keep them closed. keep them safe. the coronavirus is the greatest disruption of life in america since 9/11. the center of the outbreak on the east coast. here's the town of new rochelle north of new york city. we continue now with scott pelley's "60 minutes" report "on the front lines." >> reporter: friday, the state opened a drive-through test center in new rochelle. swabs are passed through the window. notes and throat samples are passed back out. the driver will get a call in a couple of days. the state hopes to process 6,000 tests a day. by this morning, westchester county reported tests on more than 1300 people. of those, 14% have come back

positive. so far 4,000 in westchester county have been under quarantine. george latimer is the top official. when you have someone in a quarantine, what if they don't have 14 days 'worth of dwroeshs? what if they don't have their drugs? >> that's our job. our job is to figure out whatever they need, even the necessititives of life, we have to figure out how to differ deliver that. >> reporter: vladimir is also thinking ahead to a worst case. >> the civil unrest is always a possibility depending on how large a group we have to quarantine. the question is how many more new rochelles will we see in the nation? how large will they get and will government be prepared to deal with these things? >> reporter: nothing seems normal, even in preparing for our interviewh gernor cuomo at thetate hospital.

>> so unusual. >> reporter: the new york department of health required we sit ten feet apart because the state is monitoring the "60 minutes" office where several colleagues have the virus. after the interview, one of the governor's daughters went into self-isolation after being near someone who might have been exposed. >> it's bound to get worse? >> it will get worse. it will get much worse before it gets better. >> can you imagine a quarantine of new york city? >> no, i can't imagine quarantine of new york city. i can imagine additional density reductions where at 50% occupancy. italy went to closing stores entirely because grocery stores and pharmacies. i think actually the more successful you are early on, the less dramatic efforts you have to take later on. >> when does this end? >> months. months. >> we have been following public

health nurses in westchester county who are putting on all the protective gear, going into the homes of people who are believed to be infected. i wonder what you think of their effort. >> god bless them. god bless them. god bless them. i marvel at their courage and their dedication. you can't pay a person enough to do that. it's a character statement of who they are. >> you know, a lot of people watching what you do would think that it's heroic. >> this is what public health is. this is what we do this. is our job. >> for me i think you feel like the whole community is your patient. >> you know, i'm curious. knowing what you know, what do you tell your own families? >> wash your hands. maybe no unnecessary travel. don't go to big events if they can be avoided. >> you know, there is panic out there. i tell them, until i become hysterical, don't really worry.

>> you're talking about being in these people's homes wearing those hazmat suits of y

school closures in nearly 40 states will have more than 37 million kids from kindergarten through 12th congratulagrade ho today. that's complicating life for a lot of parents. later today, all the schools in new jersey will join that list. meg oliver's own kids are home with her husband john, and she brings us up to speed from the buzz aldrin middle school in montclair, new jersey. >> reporter: this is one of the schools in new jersey that has already closed down as millions of students across the country log on from home, some with laptops provided by the district and parents juggle this new world of learning, but it looks different in each family. >> we're taking this step to keep our school safe. >> reporter: public schools in los angeles closed this week. some 600,000 students forced to stay home.

the same happened on the east coast in new york city, where there is a five-week closure of the country's largest public school district, serving more than a million students, leaving officials scrambling to assure child care for emergency personnel and health care workers. another major concern is making sure students don't go hungry. more than 70% live in poverty. so free breakfast and lunch is being offered at all new york public schools. >> two meals i don't have to provide which is two meals i can provide another day. >> reporter: city schools are also moving to online class next week, but even the head of new york schools says some 3,000 kids don't have electronic we've ordered hot spots. we've teamed with apple. we've bought laptops. we're going have laptops coming in about 25,000 a day.

>> reporter: in miami racing to find child care for the rest of the week. >> thank god i was off today. for the rest of the week, i won't know. >> every day we're going to have a morning meeting. >> reporter: teaching started for several districts. >> realistic fiction. >> reporter: institute teacher has four kids ranging from preschool to seventh grade. how long you prepared to keep this up? >> the school says two weeks. i'm assuming a month. and i think the whole business this week we get into a rhythm. >> reporter: how overwhelm ready you feeling? >> it's a lot. i think, and my kids can see it. i can feel it. >> reporter: new jersey's governor now has ordered that all schools across the state be closed. here in montclair, the school district deployed 300 chrome book laptops to families in need. >> and that's the "overnight news" for this wednesday. for some of you, the news continues. for over, check back with us a little later for the morning news and of course "cbs this morning." reporting from the cbs broadcast center in los angeles, i'm lee

cowan. this is the "cbs morning news." the coronavirus spreads in the u.s. infections are reported in all 50 states with more than 6,000 cases and more than 100 dead. this as the president proposes a massive stimulus package that could send cash to americans. pushed to the limit. hospital and clinic workers, medical supplies are running low, and now some are getting infected. and joe biden sweeps. the former vice president picks up three more states as he pulls ahead in the race for the democratic presidential democratic presidential nomination. captioning funded by cbs good morning from the studio 57 newsroom at cbs headquarters n