New York City is reborn after a year of lethargy

NEW YORK (AP) – They say that New York is “the city that never sleeps,” but the coronavirus pandemic forced the burgeoning metropolis to take a year of lethargy. Now it was time to wake up.

As of Wednesday, all vaccinated New Yorkers will be able to remove the mask in most places and public places such as restaurants, stores, gyms and other businesses, which will be able to function again at full capacity as long as they check the vaccination cards or the vaccination apps. people to verify that they are indeed inoculated.

The subway train began operating 24 hours a day again a few days ago and by the end of the month bars and restaurants will no longer have to abide by a curfew that began at midnight. Broadway show tickets are starting to be sold, though the curtain won’t go up until September.

City authorities say it is time to rise again after the severe blow suffered by the pandemic since last year. The incipient New York rebirth was perhaps best illustrated by the cover of the most recent edition of The New Yorker magazine: A huge door ajar, through whose opening a ray of light enters, illuminating the silhouette of the city’s emblematic skyscrapers.

However, is New York really fully recovered from the crisis? “I would say maybe 75% yes, definitely little by little it’s coming back,” said Mark Kumar, a 24-year-old fitness trainer.

However, others disagree. “There will be no total normality for a while. There have been too many deaths, there has been too much suffering, too much inequality persists, ”said Ameen Deen, 63.

In the spring of last year, the country’s largest city was also the hardest hit by the coronavirus: 21,000 people died in just two months. The death rate among the black and Hispanic communities was much higher than that of whites or Asians.

Hospitals were crammed with patients and corpses. Morgues had to be improvised on refrigerated trucks, and field hospitals were erected in the heart of Central Park. The once bustling streets of the city were turned off, except for the sirens of ambulances and the outbreak of applause and shouts every night, in honor of the health sector workers.

After a year of ups and downs, the city now hopes that the health crisis has bottomed out and that the vaccination campaign has made a difference. 47% of residents have received at least one of the doses. Deaths from COVID-19 have averaged just over 20 per day and the average number of new cases and hospitalizations has plummeted.

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Associated Press journalist Michael R. Sisak contributed to this report.

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