Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday refused to say whether the city would hit Phase 2 next week — because he wants more information on whether the coronavirus has spread as a result of recent protests.
“We certainly saw an aberrant reality with the protest activity,” the mayor said at his daily press briefing, referring to the thousands of demonstrators who’ve taken to the streets in wake of George Floyd’s death.
“We want to know what that has resulted in in terms of the spread of disease, or maybe it hasn’t. We don’t know that yet because not enough time has passed.”
The Big Apple remains well below the state’s seven health-related benchmarks to reopen, with 52 admissions for suspected COVID-19, 334 patients in ICU and just 2 percent testing positive for the virus as of Monday.
Under Phase 2, restaurants with outdoor seating and places of worship, salons, barbershops and car dealerships will be allowed to open with limited capacity. Certain office spaces can also reopen and in-store shopping can resume.
Nine of the state’s 10 economic regions are currently in Phase 2 and New York City was on track to reach the second phase under the state’s schedule of two weeks per phase.
De Blasio reiterated that the city would likely hit Phase 2 in the “beginning of July.”
“We will be ready for next week if the indicators and the discussions with the state tell us we’re ready to go next week,” he said.
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