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New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday during a daily virtual press conference that the city will likely enter phase one of reopening during the first two weeks of June, as deaths and new infections from the novel coronavirus continue to decline.
De Blasio, a Democrat, explained that phase one would include allowing manufacturing, construction, non-essential retail curbside pick-up or in-store pick-up and construction to move forward. The mayor said that the city would "restart smart" with significant testing and contact tracing, in an effort to prevent future waves of new infections.
"We've come a long way. We're not going to blow it now," de Blasio said. Newsweek has reached out to press office of New York's City Hall for further comment.
The mayor explained that it's unclear how many people will be able to return to work during the first phase of reopening. He suggested that the number would range between 200,000 and 400,000, according to surveys carried out by the city.
De Blasio added that social distancing, as well as face masks, should still be the norm moving forward, particularly as people use public transportation. He also said that childcare and schools returning to normal operations are likely still months away.
"It's not yet time for restaurants and bars [to reopen]," de Blasio said. However, he voiced openness in finding a way for those businesses to reopen outdoors, as suggested by some members of New York's City Council.
New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo issued a statewide stay-at-home order in March, as New York City and the state rapidly became the epicenter of the novel coronavirus within the U.S. New York has reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases of any state, with more than 360,000 confirmed as of Thursday morning. More than 23,200 people have died from the novel virus within the state.
The majorities of those infections and deaths were in New York City, which had reported more than 200,000 cases of the novel virus as of Thursday morning. Of those infected, more than 16,400 have died.
But the state and city have seen a steady decline in new cases and deaths over the past few weeks, as the stay-at-home order and social distancing measures have effectively flattened the curve of the novel virus. On Wednesday, the state reported 1,129 new infections, down from from a peak of 11,571 in mid-April.
But even as the state and city move to reopen, Cuomo has cautioned that the economic fallout from shutting down will need to be addressed in the coming months.
"We already know that tens of thousands of small businesses closed and won't come back. We already know corporations are going to lay off thousands of workers and use this pandemic as an excuse to get lean," Cuomo said on Wednesday. "We know there is work to do in this nation. You have an infrastructure that's crumbling, you need to jumpstart the economy, you need to create jobs. Do it now."
This article has been updated with additional information and background.
About the writer
Jason Lemon is a Senior Politics Editor at Newsweek based in Brooklyn, New York. Prior to taking on the editor role, Jason's reporting focused ... Read more