Some areas of New York State, the most affected by the epidemic in the United States, will be able to gradually revive their economy from May 15, but not New York City itself, where the lockdown is expected to last at least. until June, local authorities said on Monday.
The city of New York, the economic capital of the country and the most affected metropolis with nearly 20,000 confirmed or probable deaths linked to the coronavirus, is not about to regain its effervescence. No date has been set for deconfinement, and Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday it was likely to last until at least June. Even if the current figures “point in the right direction, they must be confirmed in a more lasting way. Right now, that takes us until June, ”said de Blasio. “When June approaches, we will be able to say whether things are really falling into place, and then what will be the areas where we can relax,” he added.
According to the governor, Andrew Cuomo, a few rare outdoor activities may resume in the whole of this state of 20 million inhabitants, such as gardening, open-air cinemas, or leisure activities such as tennis. For the rest, the start of deconfinement should only concern regions far from the first American metropolis, which will be able to restart their construction and manufacturing sectors on Friday, when the current confinement decree expires for the whole of the United States. State.
The regions will first have to comply with seven very precise quantified criteria, notably concerning the evolution of their number of cases, hospital capacity, and the testing and monitoring capacities of infected people, said the governor. “We’ve avoided the worst thanks to what we’ve done, and now we can smartly look to the reopening on May 15th, this Friday. Regions need to start preparing for it, and so do people, ”Cuomo said.
If the epidemic is in sharp decline in New York – where a quarter of some 80,000 American deaths have been recorded – the mayor and the governor advocate extreme caution, for fear that the epidemic will rise again quickly. The state still recorded 161 deaths from COVID-19 on Sunday, Cuomo said, a sharp drop from the record 799 on April 9.
–
–