New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday that the state is temporarily shutting down all live bird markets in New York City and Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk counties through February 14 after inspectors discovered seven cases of bird flu in poultry.

The order requires market owners to sell or otherwise remove all live birds and conduct a thorough cleaning and disinfection of their facilities—even if bird flu wasn't detected there. All markets must remain closed for five days after the cleaning to confirm they are free of the H5N1 bird flu virus so that the virus won't spread again when live animals are reintroduced.

Live poultry markets in New York City raced to sell off all their chickens and other fowl Friday after seven cases of avian flu were detected and state officials ordered markets in the metropolitan area to close for a week.