New York is cautiously coming back to life, outbreak of Covid-19 cases in southern and western countries

New York, June 22, 2020 (AFP) – City most affected by the coronavirus in the United States, New York took a new step on Monday in its exit from confinement with the reopening to the public of non-essential businesses, while several states South and West are seeing a surge in the number of positive cases.

White hair hidden under a hat, mops in pain, many of them presented themselves this Monday morning to their usual hairdresser, authorized to reopen for the first time, three months to the day after the start of confinement. “I cut my hair myself (during lockdown) and really did anything, so I can’t wait to go,” said Jeremiah Zinn, first customer at Benny’s Barbershop in Brooklyn. .

After construction and industries two weeks ago, New York has begun the second phase of its four-part economy restart plan with the reopening of non-essential businesses. Outside the Lexington Candy Shop, a typical 1950s diner, Chet Kane is enjoying his first coffee on the terrace, as restaurants and bars are now allowed to serve outside, but still not inside. New York, which until now had no great terrace culture, takes on a Parisian feel.

The coronavirus, which has killed more than 22,000 in New York, remains in people’s minds, and mask wearers remain the most numerous in the streets of Manhattan. “We can not just say: come on, we reopen. We must respect the people who come to us”, animates Yury Ybukov, owner of Benny’s Barbershop, who has given his entire team an online training in health precautions and will leave three of his five empty chairs. “If a customer comes by and calls us the next day to tell us he’s sick, we’re not going to laugh.”

“A political question”

Many have their eyes fixed on these southern and western states which are experiencing a surge in the number of Covid-19 cases, notably Florida, Montana or Oklahoma, where Donald Trump traveled on Saturday for a meeting the country.
Even though the total number of daily deaths in the country is declining and is now at higher levels since the end of March, concern remains about this resurgence and the capacity of the health system to cope with it.

Several governors refused to make the wearing of a mask compulsory inside places open to the public and blame the acceleration in the number of cases on an increase in tests. The explanation was taken up on Saturday by Donald Trump during his speech in Tulsa (Oklahoma), during which he suggested slowing down the pace of tests, an idea that the president’s advisers then described as a joke.

In Nebraska, Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts has warned that any local authority that requires masks to be worn on their premises would be denied federal funding to deal with the pandemic. “The White House has made it a political issue, and states have reopened and forgotten the numbers and the science,” New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo commented Monday on CNN. “New York State did the exact opposite. We followed the science.”

New York City is now recording fewer than 100 new cases daily, after experiencing days of more than 6,000 new positive people in early April. However, the restart of the economy is still in the early stages and the permanent signs that the pandemic has left in the streets of New York are already visible.

On Monday, when they were authorized, dozens of businesses did not reopen in Manhattan, and stores emptied of their furniture and now vacant are legion. “Many of our customers who bought us flowers every week have left,” says Sam Karalis, owner of Windsor Florist, in the upscale Upper East Side. “They have homes in the Hamptons,” New York’s Riviera, “or wherever, north” of town, and probably won’t be back until summer is over at best, he says. . “Why would they come back?”

–

All rights of reproduction and representation reserved.
© 2020 Agence France-Presse
All the information reproduced in this section (or on this page as the case may be) is protected by intellectual property rights held by AFP. Consequently, none of this information may be reproduced, modified, redistributed, translated, commercially exploited or reused in any way whatsoever without the prior written consent of AFP. AFP cannot be held responsible for delays, errors or omissions which cannot be excluded, nor for the consequences of actions or transactions carried out on the basis of this information.

.