lockdown is extended in New York until May 28

NY on PAUSE is extended to May 28 for regions that don’t begin reopening today.

But as soon as a region hits its benchmark, it comes online immediately — it does not have to wait until May 28.

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) May 15, 2020

–

“We have to be really, really disciplined,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio repeated Thursday on CNN. “We’re going to take it slowly and gradually.”

Despite slowing the epidemic – the daily death toll is falling sharply, below 200 – the authorities refuse to commit to the resumption of schools in September, leaving millions of parents in uncertainty.

For the moment, this metropolis of 8.6 million inhabitants is far from fulfilling the necessary criteria to gradually revive the economy: continuous decline in the number of hospitalizations, people in intensive care and positive tests for Covid-19.

In the face of prolonged confinement, New Yorkers have so far remained relatively disciplined, despite the dramatic consequences for hundreds of thousands of people now deprived of income, especially among black and Hispanic minorities.

While elsewhere in the United States, protests have multiplied against containment, many adhere to the caution of their leaders. Especially since more than 80 New York children have suffered from rare pediatric inflammation, probably linked to the virus.

“The confinement must continue for two or three more months, because we live in a large city with a lot of people,” Denzel Charles, postman, told AFP. “Many people are in a hurry to resume quickly (…) but in places that have reopened, it is chaos”, underlines Kiyona Carswell, model now unemployed.

Questions about the financial health of New York

However, the more the economy remains immersed in lethargy, the more uncertainty rises about the future of a city which owes its influence to its density and permanent hyperactivity. Many affluent New Yorkers have already left to go green, and some are thinking of never coming back.

“All the reasons for which we are (in New York) – restaurants, concerts … – have disappeared”, testifies Hans Robert, 49, IT manager of a large bank. He and his family, for 10 years in Manhattan, moved at the end of April to their country house in northern New York, from where they telecommute.

Another question: the financial health of the city, whose tax revenues have melted with the stoppage of the economy. The Democratic mayor brandishes the specter of bankruptcy like the one in the 1970s, which dramatically reduced public services and exploded crime.

He begs Republican President Donald Trump to validate a new stimulus package concocted by Congress Democrats, which would bail out the city to the tune of 17 billion over two years. But the president has already ruled out adopting it as it is.

“New York has known a lot of crises and always ends up bouncing back,” says Maria Kopman, an anesthetist in a city hospital. Even though everything will not be the way it used to be, “people who come here for boiling, socializing, I don’t believe it will go away.”

With AFP

– .