New York City seeks to reinstate restrictions in some spots

New York City's mayor said Sunday that he has asked the state for permission to close schools and reinstate restrictions on non essential businesses in several neighborhoods because of a resurgence of the coronavirus.

The action, if approved, would mark a disheartening retreat for a city that enjoyed a summer with less spread of the virus than most other parts of the country, and had only recently celebrated the return of students citywide to in-person learning in classrooms.

Shutdowns would happen starting Wednesday in nine ZIP codes in the city, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

About 100 public schools and 200 private schools would have to close. Indoor dining, which just resumed a few days ago, would be suspended.

Outdoor restaurant dining would shut down in the affected neighborhoods as well, and gyms would close.

The mayor, a Democrat, said he was taking the action in an attempt to stop the virus from spreading deeper into the city and becoming a "second wave," like the one that killed more than 24,000 New Yorkers in the spring.

"We've learned over and over from this disease that it is important to act aggressively, and when the data tells us it's time for even the toughest and most rigorous actions we follow the data, we follow the science," de Blasio said.

Over the past two weeks, the number of new cases of the virus has been rising in pockets of the city, predominantly in neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens that are home to the city's large Orthodox Jewish population.

Nearly 1,100 people have tested positive in Brooklyn in just the last four days, according to state figures.

De Blasio made the announcement shortly after Governor Andrew Cuomo complained that local governments with coronavirus hot spots had "not done an effective job" of enforcing social distancing rules.

Cuomo did not immediately comment on de Blasio's proposed shutdown in the areas where the virus is spiking.

De Blasio had said in the past that public schools were largely unaffected by the rise in virus infections in Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods, but he said Sunday that public schools in the hot spot neighborhoods would be closed "out of an abundance of caution."

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