The New York subway recovers its 24-hour service after a year of hiatus | WORLD

The metro of the city of New York, the busiest in the United States, resumed its 24-hour service on Monday, a year after the authorities agreed to a nightly closure for the disinfection of the wagons as a measure to prevent the spread of the COVID-19.

On May 6 of last year, the doors of all stations closed for the first time in the history of this means of transport at 1 a.m. local time, until 5 a.m. A closure that has been relaxing with the reopening measures that accompany vaccination.

The “train” (train, in Spanish), as New Yorkers often call it, remained closed in recent weeks between 2 and 4 in the morning, until the reopening today, which marks the end of the largest temporary closure of its story.

According to the authorities, the wagons will continue to be disinfected despite the return to continuous operations and the use of masks will remain mandatory.

During the first months of the pandemic, the number of passengers plummeted by more than 90%, but on April 8, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) announced that the number of metro users reached two for the first time. million a day, a figure still well below the 5.5 million people who regularly used the subway before the pandemic.

Its reopening 24 hours a day coincides with the end of the mandatory closure of the terraces of bars and restaurants at midnight and is part of a package of measures to restore normalcy announced by the state governor, Andrew Cuomo, on May 3.

As part of this initiative to reactivate the economy in New YorkAs of this Wednesday, the capacity restrictions that have prevailed for the hotel industry, leisure and many other businesses such as retail stores, gyms or hairdressers will end.

The new rules in New York They have been coordinated with the neighboring states of New Jersey and Connecticut and also raise the limit of participants in outdoor gatherings from 200 to 500 people and indoors from 100 to 250.

Large venues – from stadiums to theaters – will be able to exceed those figures if they require vaccination tests or negative tests and have space to maintain the required distances.