NEW YORK, Oct. 7 (Reuters) – New York will force the closure of businesses and schools on Thursday in the face of the resurgence of the COVID-19 epidemic in some areas of the city, despite the protests of some Orthodox Jews.
Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York, announced on Sunday that he would order the closure of businesses considered non-essential and schools in several areas of the city identified as hotbeds of COVID-19 contamination.
New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday approved the closure of schools in several areas highly exposed to the novel coronavirus, including parts of Brooklyn and Queens, New York even.
In Brooklyn, some Hasidic Jewish communities demonstrated Tuesday evening against the restrictions, introduced in the middle of the Jewish holiday season, which include the limitation of religious gatherings to ten people.
Videos broadcast on the internet and relayed on social networks showed hundreds of Hasidic Jews, most of them without masks, gathered around a large burning fire in the middle of an avenue.
Four politicians from the city and state of New York, representing the Orthodox Jewish communities, published a letter blaming Cuomo, a Catholic, for what they consider to be the singling out of a religious community without its having t consult. (Jonathan Allen, Maria Caspani and Gabriella Borter; French version Camille Raynaud)
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