The city of New York illuminated several of its most emblematic places this Sunday to pay tribute to those who are fighting the coronavirus pandemic and celebrate that tomorrow it will begin to come out of quarantine.
The Grand Central Station Bridge and buildings such as One World Trade Center and Rockefeller Center, among others, were lit in blue and gold in an initiative that included the rest of the state of the same name.
The governor of the state of New York, Andrew Cuomo, today ratified the reopening of the largest city in the world. “We are opening New York tomorrow,” he said at his daily press conference.
In this way, the Big Apple will join other regions of the state that have already begun to gradually come out of quarantine in recent days and as of tomorrow some 400,000 workers will return to their jobs amidst severe precautionary measures.
In this first stage, the industry, construction, agriculture, fishing and non-essential commerce will resume their activities, although in the latter case customers will only be able to attend to pick up purchases already ordered, without staying on the premises.
The authorities estimated that this week some 16,000 businesses in various fields, some 3,700 manufacturing companies and more than 32,000 construction sites will reopen, according to the EFE news agency.
Likewise, the city’s public transport network will once again operate at 90% of its capacity.
All these activities will be carried out in the context of a rigorous control of the health of workers and the obligation to wear masks and maintain social distancing for all people.
Meanwhile, restaurants, bars, theaters and offices, as well as schools, will remain closed, although in this case classes have already entered the summer break.
The reopening will begin 100 days after the first case of coronavirus was confirmed in the city, which quickly became the epicenter of the pandemic within the United States, in turn the country with the highest number of infections and deaths from the disease all over the world.
Cuomo said that the trend remains positive throughout the state, where hospitalizations and deaths of patients with Covid-19 fell to the minimum since the start of the pandemic.
The governor clarified that for now it was not clear the magnitude of the eventual impact on the pandemic of protests against racism and police violence in recent days, but reiterated that the issue is of great concern to health authorities.
The United States today accounted for 1.93 million confirmed cases of coronavirus and 110,047 deaths from the disease, of which 30,324 were concentrated in New York state, according to Johns Hopkins University.
– .
