New York City Reopens After 80-Day Lockdown

New York City has officially begun its reopening, after an 80-day lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. According to CBS News, the city is starting the first phase of opening back up, which means that certain businesses can resume, such as non-essential businesses. However, they are only approved to do curbside pick-up at this time.

Additionally, construction projects are allowed to restart, and manufacturers are able to get their production floors up and running again. The outlet notes that officials are estimating that this will get roughly 400,000 New Yorkers back to work, after being quarantined for almost three full months. Stephanie Goldstein, owner of children’s clothing store Stoopher & Boots, commented on the news, saying that while her online business really picked up in the last few months, she is happy to be reopening her store. “It’s so personal when it’s a small store and I really feel connected to my customers. And I just feel like I haven’t seen them in so long.”

Over 200,000 New York City residents have tested positive for coronavirus, to date. The city’s death toll is currently estimated to be over 21,000. “We’ve tested everything else, we’ve measured everything else,” said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. “Everything was going fine, then we had these large number of protests. We don’t know what the effect of those protests are. And we’re concerned about it.”

Even though New York is beginning to open up and resume certain businesses, social distancing guidelines and face masks will still be crucial in fighting Covid-19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention strongly recommends “wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies), especially in areas of significant community-based transmission.” The CDC “also advises the use of simple cloth face coverings to slow the spread of the virus and help people who may have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others.”

“Cloth face coverings fashioned from household items or made at home from common materials at low cost can be used as an additional, voluntary public health measure,” the department also said. “Cloth face coverings should not be placed on young children under age 2, anyone who has trouble breathing, or is unconscious, incapacitated or otherwise unable to remove the mask without assistance.”