Virtual dining and shopping, New York tips for the holidays

New York, Nov 10 (EFE) .- Virtual dinners, online shopping or Christmas carols in the streets are some of the recommendations that New York City makes to its residents so that the imminent holiday period does not trigger the transmission of the coronavirus.
The councils, gathered by the City Council in a short guide to festivities such as Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and Christmas, defend the need to celebrate these occasions, but to do so in the safest way possible.
“The best gift we can give to those we love is to keep them safe,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio at a press conference on Tuesday.
The municipal guide urges New Yorkers not to travel, to celebrate only with residents in the same home and not to meet in groups, while proposing safe alternatives such as holding festive dinners through videoconferencing, strolling through the streets to enjoy of decorations or buy gifts through the internet.
The authorities also encourage people to go out into the streets to sing Christmas carols – keeping a greater safety distance than usual – to enjoy the snow and to surprise friends and neighbors with letters or by leaving sweets at the door.
New York also warns of the risk posed by the usual religious ceremonies on these dates and asks that the services be carried out online or outdoors and that objects are not shared during the liturgy.
Although it advises against meetings, the City Council offers some recommendations for those who still decide to celebrate in groups, insisting on the importance that people at risk do not participate, that people get tested for the coronavirus, that they opt for the outdoors and that a safe distance is maintained.
In his press conference, De Blasio asked New Yorkers to make a sacrifice this holiday season with the prospect that by next year they can be celebrated with some normality.
The mayor insisted that the recent increase in cases in the city is very worrying and a warning of a possible “second wave” of the disease in the Big Apple, which was one of the hardest hit places in the world during the first .
According to the latest figures, the average of positive tests during the last seven days has risen to 2.31% after hovering around 1% for quite some time and on average 795 new cases are being registered daily, a figure that has not been seen since the month of May.
The United States yesterday reached the figure of 10,036,282 confirmed cases of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and 238,053 deaths from the covid-19 disease, according to the independent count from Johns Hopkins University.

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