New York (AFP)

They stock up at the supermarket, start cooking instead of going out, and wonder about the habits that must be given up: New Yorkers began Saturday to adapt to the upheavals of daily life precipitated by the coronavirus.

The number of cases recorded in the first American city, has, as anticipated by the authorities, greatly increased in recent days: it now exceeds 200, according to Governor Andrew Cuomo, and is expected to cross 1,000 next week.

For those who had not yet had time to go to the supermarket, the sunny day of Saturday was an opportunity to stock up - food, toilet paper, disinfectant products - while many supermarkets were taken by storm from Thursday.

"I have been doing this job for 40 years and I had never seen that: during Hurricane Sandy I had not seen that, during (the attacks) of September 11, 2001 either", declared to AFP Larry Grossman , director of a supermarket in southern Manhattan, filling the empty shelves of his store with 85 employees whose hours he has extended.

Nnenna Doyle and her husband Mark, 34 and 36, who have been teleworking since Thursday, went to the popular Trader Joe's when it opened.

"We bought a lot of basic products - and also a lot of beer," they laugh.

This Irish-born couple planned to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, the great Irish holiday, in a pub on Saturday evening. But like many New Yorkers, even if the restaurants and bars remain open, they prefer to avoid going out, and have organized an evening at home.

They had invited 17 people, "eight have canceled each other," preferring to isolate themselves at home for fear of having been in contact with infected people, says Nnenna.

This young product manager will try to greet her world "by banging their elbows", even if she says she is "a regular at braces".

- Close all -

Patricia Jamele, 60, and her partner James, also took advantage of the sun to go for a walk, but are divided: "one of us thinks that we should avoid going out completely, the other is so that we stroll ", says this cleaning lady who has no possibility of teleworking.

"There is great anxiety ... we do not know if it is justified or inappropriate," she said.

A little further, on the main square of Union Square, in Greenwich Village, the open air Saturday market is in full swing. Several sellers say they have more customers than usual.

At midday, "we were already short of several products that we usually repack at the end of the day," says Paul Violethill, 50, a farmer from northern New York, who sells meats and cold meats.

"People stay at home. From what I see the restaurants are empty, so they stay at home and cook," he adds. "And an open air market is probably one of the safest places to buy food."

Although his farm is in a remote hamlet in New York State, he has no fear of coming to town, even if he believes that the authorities, which in New York have kept public schools and the subway open , better "close everything".

"I take care of animals," he said, "I can see that when there is a sick person, if you do not isolate it immediately, it spreads like a forest fire."

© 2020 AFP