Hard-hit by coronavirus, New York City to begin re-opening on Monday

New York City, epicenter of devastating COVID-19 pandemic in US, will begin first phase of reopening its ecomy on Monday, bringing about 400,000 employees back to work nearly after 100 days in lockdown when coronavirus crisis began. New York City h been shut since mid-March as coronavirus ravd metropolis, which has more than 205,000 COVID19 cases so far and close to 22,000 deaths.

“New York City has met all metrics. We are going to open New York City for Phase 1 tomorrow, period. That will happen. When we begin Phase 1 in New York City, remember that New York City h highest number of cases. New York City has highest density,” New York Goverr Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday at a press briefing. vel coronavirus has hard-hit New York and state’s ecomic health has deteriorated, and it faces a difficult and painful recovery without significant help from federal government, according to Voice of America (VOA). He however ded that New York City has seen widespre protests over killing of 46-year-old African-American George Floyd and “we are concerned that those protests may have increased spre of virus.”

state will be conducting 35,000 tests per day in New York City and will monitor situation daily to see impact of protests on coronavirus infection numbers. New York City Department of Buildings also released new COVID-19 safety guidelines for property owners and contractors as 33,556 n-essential construction sites get back to work in phase 1 of re-opening. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said re-opening of city is an important milestone that was achieved with help of all New Yorkers. He said beginning Monday "something very, very important happens in city, beginning of phase one, restart of city, restart of our ecomy, restart of people's livelihoods, and we should all feel that this is a moment that every New Yorker should celebrate as our achievement toger, your achievement, because you did hard work to fight back coronavirus so we could get to phase one” and Monday morning “will be a very important day in history of this city.”

As many as 400,000 workers could begin returning to construction jobs, manufacturing sites and retail stores in city’s first phase of reopening. Regions across New York State began ir phased re-opening last month but New York City remained shut as it did t meet seven health-related criteria necessary for first phase of reopening. Cuomo has said that phase one reopening will bring about 400,000 employees back to work in New York City. first phase of re-opening allows construction; manufacturing and wholesale supply chain; retail for curbside pickup and drop-off or in-store pickup; and agriculture, forestry and fishing to resume operations. seven metrics that will define wher a region can re-open businesses are decline in total hospitalisations, decline in deaths measured by three-day rolling aver of daily new hospital deaths t exceeding 5, fewer than two new hospitalisations per 100,000 residents, hospital bed capacity regions must have at least 30 per cent of ir total hospital beds available before a phased re-opening, availability of 30 per cent of ICU beds in a region, diagstic testing capacity and contact tracing capacity.

New York State has recorded lowest number of daily coronavirus deaths for two consecutive days since pandemic began, in a sign that state has turned tide in COVID-19 battle. state lost 35 people on Friday to COVID-19, down from a record-high of 800 just eight weeks ago. On Thursday, 42 New Yorkers died from virus, a record low since pandemic began. Cuomo said Saturday "35 New Yorkers died of coronavirus yesterday. This is a record low since this crisis began.” number of total hospitalisations was also down to 2,728 from a record-high of 18,825 during peak of pandemic, Cuomo h said.

As protests over Floyd’s killing intensified in last few weeks, a nightly curfew was imposed in New York City for almost whole of last week. de Blasio anunced that curfew will end as law and order situation improved. “Because we got, each day, a better and better situation, more and more peaceful protesters coming out, better situation overall each day, fewer and fewer arrests, I me decision to end curfew. And honestly, I hope it's last time we will ever need a curfew in New York City. So, curfew has ended. It is out of effect. It will t be coming back.” rastern state of 19.5 million people has seen a record 1.2 million unemployment claims filed in April, since virus started spreing rapidly and state “paused” its nessential businesses and workforce to contain outbreak, leing to a drying up of revenue, VOA report said.

On March 25, US Senate passed a USD 2.2 trillion stimulus pack to dress negative ecomic impact of coronavirus. New York, which les nation in confirmed cases and hospitalisations, received only USD 3.8 billion, report ded. shuttering of so many businesses has crippled state’s thriving ecomy, which h a GDP of more than USD 1.5 trillion in 2017, according to New York state comptroller’s website.