Here’s what you need to know:
- Five of New York’s 10 regions can start to reopen on Friday.
- Jersey Shore will open, with limits, by Memorial Day weekend.
- A guide to what’s set to reopen in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
- A tour operator helps nurses get to the front lines.
- Disney, citing pandemic, closes ‘Frozen’ on Broadway
Five of New York’s 10 regions can start to reopen on Friday.
A five-county section of central New York that includes Syracuse has met the criteria necessary to begin reopening some businesses on Friday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Thursday.
Central New York was the fifth upstate region where construction, manufacturing and curbside retail businesses that had been closed amid the coronavirus pandemic were being allowed to start up again, Mr. Cuomo said at his daily briefing. In a subsequent order, he said the limited reopening could proceed as of 12:01 a.m.
The other areas covered by the order are the Finger Lakes, including Rochester; the Southern Tier, which borders Pennsylvania; the Mohawk Valley, west of Albany; and the rural North Country, which includes the Adirondack Mountains.
The rest of the state, including New York City, has not yet achieved the seven health-related benchmarks required by Mr. Cuomo to begin any reopening.
Mr. Cuomo also reported 157 new virus-related deaths, the fourth straight day the figure was below 200. And while the number of new virus cases (2,390) was up slightly, the number of total hospitalizations (6,706) continued to decline.
State officials are now investigating 110 cases of a potentially life-threatening pediatric inflammatory syndrome that appears to be related to the virus and has so far been linked to three deaths, Mr. Cuomo said. (Mayor Bill de Blasio said earlier in the day that city officials were investigating 100 cases of the syndrome.)
The governor spent several minutes at the briefing, which was held in Syracuse, advising New Yorkers in the areas set to reopen on how they should proceed with the virus in retreat, but not eliminated as a threat.
“You know whose going to protect you?” he said. “You are. I heartily recommend caution and diligence.”
Jersey Shore will open, with limits, by Memorial Day weekend.
New Jersey’s beaches, a major tourist draw and economic engine, will open in a limited way by Memorial Day weekend, the traditional start of summer, Gov. Philip D. Murphy said on Thursday.
“The last thing that any of us wanted was for a summertime down the shore to be a memory,” Mr. Murphy said at his daily news briefing.
The move, which Mr. Murphy called “getting toward the edge of what we can responsibly do,” is a major step toward a broader reopening of one of the states hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic.
The rules governing how beaches can operate were officially laid out in an executive order signed by Mr. Murphy later in the day. Under the order, the rules will take effect May 22.
Local governments run beaches and boardwalks in their jurisdictions, and they have discretion in imposing restrictions. But local officials will have to enact social-distancing rules for beaches, including limiting their capacity and requiring that people stay six feet apart, the governor said.
Organized and contact sports will be prohibited, as will large, organized events, including fireworks displays, that could draw crowds. Boardwalk restaurants will only be able to offer takeout and delivery. Amusement parks, arcades and other diversions will remain closed.
The governor’s order recommends but does not require people to wear face coverings while in public settings at the beaches.
Mr. Murphy had said for some time that he hoped to see beaches and boardwalks, which were closed to limit the virus’s spread, opened by Memorial Day.
He further committed to the date after residents appeared to follow the social-distancing rules that were enacted when officials reopened parks and golf courses on May 2 after a steady decline in new virus cases and hospitalizations.
At his briefing Thursday, Mr. Murphy said the state would also allow recreation at lakefronts, and added that he hoped to issue guidance for swimming pools soon.
The announcement about the beaches came as officials reported 244 additional virus-related deaths, the first time in a week the number had topped 200. (The state’s daily death tolls can fluctuate because they often include deaths from weeks ago that were only recently confirmed.)
New Jersey has now recorded 9,946 virus-related deaths. Mr. Murphy said he expected the number would pass 10,000 on Friday.
A guide to what’s set to reopen in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
For almost two months, much of daily life has been halted in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut as officials sought to bring the coronavirus outbreak under control.
But with the virus beginning to show signs of retreat, officials across the region have recently turned their attention to how to revive the economies of their states.
This week and next will offer some of the first crucial tests of whether those plans will work and a window into what “normal” life may be like in the months ahead.
Here is a look at what types of businesses, services and public places are expected to reopen and when in each of the three states:
New York
On March 20, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo issued an executive order putting New York “on pause.” Under the 10-point plan, all of nonessential businesses had to close by the evening of March 22. Mr. Cuomo extended the order once in April; it expires on Friday.
Starting Friday, five of the state’s 10 regions are eligible to begin what is being called “phase one” of the state’s reopening plan. The five regions are:
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the Finger Lakes, including Rochester
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the Southern Tier, which borders Pennsylvania
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the Mohawk Valley, west of Albany
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the North Country, which includes the Adirondack Mountains.
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and Central New York, which includes Syracuse
The following types of businesses can resume in those regions, provided that certain public health measures are in place:
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Construction, manufacturing and wholesale trade.
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Some retail businesses, including those that sell clothing, electronics, furniture, books, sporting goods, shoes, flowers, jewelry and other types off goods, may open for curbside service only.
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Other activities that are allowed include drive-in movies, landscaping and gardening businesses and “low-risk recreational activities” like tennis, a sport with built-in social distancing.
As of Wednesday, elective surgeries were allowed in 47 New York counties. And state court officials said this week that judges and staff members would begin returning to courthouses in 30 upstate counties on May 20.
Businesses that cannot reopen until later include professional services, finance and insurance, real estate, restaurants and entertainment services.
New Jersey
State residents have been mostly required to stay at home under an executive order in effect since March 21. Gov. Phillip D. Murphy’s order makes exceptions for trips to visit businesses considered essential: getting takeout food restaurants, procuring medical services or to meet other urgent demands.
Mr. Murphy said this week that under a new executive order, some nonessential businesses would be allowed to resume operations at various points this month. Among the changes:
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All retail stores in the state can begin offering curbside pickup of goods starting Monday; nonessential construction projects can also restart at 6 a.m. that day.
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Drive-in movies, religious services and other gatherings will be allowed as long as people stay in their cars.
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Beaches will open in a limited way by Memorial Day Weekend, with social-distancing rules and capacity limits in place.
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Mr. Murphy also suggested that he will soon provide guidance on when elective surgeries might begin again, how elections will proceeded and when and how to reopen swimming pools. Officials allowed parks and golf courses to reopen on May 2.
Connecticut
Like their neighbors in New York and New Jersey, most Connecticut residents have been under orders to stay at home as much as possible since mid-March. But the state has not been hit quite as hard by the virus, and officials envision what amounts to a broader, faster reopening.
Officials announced earlier this month that restaurants, offices, retail establishments and hair salons would be allowed to open on May 20 at 50 percent capacity with proper health precautions in place, but with generally fewer limits than in New York and New Jersey.
More specifically:
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Restaurants will be open for outdoor dining only; menus will need to be disposable or posted on boards; and silverware must be packaged or rolled.
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Offices can open but companies have been advised to encourage employees to continue to working from home.
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Retail businesses are required to close fitting rooms, create physical barriers at checkout and install markers that indicate six feet of distance.
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Hair salons can open, but can see customers by appointment only and must close their waiting areas.
Connecticut officials have also said that colleges and universities in the state can reopen in stages over the summer and fall and that summer camps are on track to begin in late June.
A tour operator helps nurses get to the front lines.
As the virus pandemic accelerated last month, Will Davis, who runs Dapper Tours, an offbeat New York City tour company, noticed how difficult it was for nurses to get to hospitals for the risky work of treating virus patients.
Mr. Davis, 39, whose tours are conducted in vintage motorcycle sidecars, posted a standing offer on his Instagram account saying that he would drive nurses to and from their shifts.
“These type of motorcycles were used to get medics to the front lines in World War II,” said Mr. Davis, who came to New York as a refugee from Liberia as a child. “And I realized they could be used to take our medical workers to the front lines of the pandemic.”
Mr. Davis said he thoroughly sanitizes the sidecars between rides and requires passengers to wear face masks, gloves and a helmet with a face shield. He follows the same protocol.
Julie Yi, a nurse at Brooklyn Hospital who also treated virus patients at the emergency hospital set up at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, was among Mr. Davis’s passengers.
Ms. Yi said she and her colleagues had avoided the subway during the pandemic and were concerned about the risk of infection in for-hire cars.
“But the sidecar provides a distance from the driver and it’s nice and refreshing to be in the open air,” she said.
Mr. Davis said he hoped to attract an investor so he could rehire his tour guides and use his full fleet of motorcycles.
“The nurses feel appreciated that someone is going out of the way to do for them the way they are doing for others,” he said. “One nurse said that seeing New York City from a sidecar reminds them of what they’re fighting for.”
Disney, citing pandemic, closes ‘Frozen’ on Broadway
Disney Theatrical Productions said on Thursday that its stage adaptation of “Frozen” would not reopen on Broadway once the pandemic eases, making the musical the first show to be felled by the coronavirus crisis.
“Frozen” had been the weakest of the three Disney musicals that had been running on Broadway — the others were “The Lion King” and “Aladdin” — and the company made it clear that it did not believe audiences would return in substantial enough numbers to sustain all of those shows.
“This difficult decision was made for several reasons but primarily because we believe that three Disney productions will be one too many titles to run successfully in Broadway’s new landscape,” Thomas Schumacher, the president of Disney Theatrical Productions, said in a letter to his staff.
Mr. Schumacher said the company was committed to “The Lion King” and “Aladdin” on Broadway, to “The Lion King” and “Mary Poppins” in London’s West End, and to touring productions of “The Lion King” and “Frozen” in North America and “The Lion King” in Britain.
The company has already cut short a North American touring production of “Aladdin” because of the pandemic, closing it six weeks early after a nearly three-year, 41-city run.
“Frozen,” which cost an estimated $25 million to $30 million to produce, arrived on Broadway in 2018 with high hopes because it was adapted from an enormously popular animated film. But it received unenthusiastic reviews from key critics and was shut out at the Tony Awards; its weekly grosses peaked at $2.6 million, but by February were averaging about $1 million.
100 children in N.Y.C. have a rare illness tied to the virus.
New York City has confirmed 100 cases of a dangerous and mysterious inflammatory syndrome that afflicts children and appears to be connected to the coronavirus, Mr. de Blasio said on Thursday.
The total reflected 18 new cases in the city of the illness, which is known as pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome and causes life-threatening inflammation in critical organs, including the heart.
“This is something where we need to put supreme focus,” Mr. de Blasio said during his daily news briefing. “We have to understand it better. We have to get ahead of it.”
So far, three children in the state, including one in the city, have died of the illness.
The uptick in cases comes as the city expands its virus-testing capabilities, particularly in neighborhoods hardest hit by the disease.
Mr. de Blasio also said Thursday that the city was broadening its guidance on testing. He said that people should get tested if they showed symptoms; had close contact with someone who was infected; or worked with residents of nursing homes, adult care facilities or shelters or other people vulnerable to getting sick.
Widespread testing was previously discouraged so that supplies and personnel could be reserved for the sickest patients.
Mr. de Blasio also announced that a dozen new city-affiliated testing sites would open in the next two weeks, bringing the total to 40.
The mayor criticized officers shown in a video arresting a woman without a face mask.
Mr. de Blasio, who has repeatedly defended the Police Department’s enforcement of social-distancing rules, on Thursday criticized officers captured on video arresting a woman who was not wearing a face mask in the subway.
In the video, officers leading the woman out of the Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center station in Brooklyn appear to wrestle the woman to the ground after she slaps away one officer’s hand. The police then appear to handcuff her as her daughter looks on.
Mr. de Blasio, at his daily news briefing, said the encounter contained “complexities,” but that the officers’ actions were inappropriate.
“Whatever else was happening in that moment, we should never have a situation where a mom with her child ends up under arrest for that kind of offense,” he said.
The mayor has acknowledged that several recent videos have highlighted the need for officers to be better trained in how to enforce social-distancing rules. But he has also said the number of arrests and summonses for violations of those rules has been minimal and that the police would continue to play a role in enforcement.
The video of the subway encounter emerged on Wednesday, as New York City’s top police official forcefully defended his department from charges that black and Latino New Yorkers were being unfairly targeted for social-distancing violations.
Dermot F. Shea, the police commissioner, disputed assertions by some elected officials and community leaders that arrest data and videos showed a racist double standard at work that was reminiscent of the “stop and frisk” policy.
Commissioner Shea, like Mr. de Blasio, said that the videos were “incredibly disheartening” and that officers would be held accountable if investigations found that they had engaged in misconduct.
But he rejected the idea that the police were engaged in “racist policing,” saying the accusations “could not be anything further from the truth.”
De Blasio suggests his top health official owes the police an apology, but also chides police union.
Mr. de Blasio said on Thursday that New York City’s health commissioner owed the entire Police Department an apology if the details of a clash she has acknowledged having with a top police official early in the virus outbreak were true.
But the mayor also criticized the police sergeants’ union for a Twitter post attacking the health commissioner, and Police Commissioner Dermot F. Shea said the union’s post was “completely inappropriate.”
At issue was a mid-March exchange, first reported by The New York Post, between the health commissioner, Dr. Oxiris Barbot, and Terence A. Monahan, the chief of department.
Chief Monahan asked Dr. Barbot for 500,000 masks for the police. Dr. Barbot, The Post reported, offered 50,000 and told the chief, “I don’t give two rats’ asses about your cops.”
Patrick Gallahue, a Health Department spokesman, said she had been involved in “a heated exchange” with Chief Monahan and that she had “apologized for her contribution” to it.
In an interview, Chief Monahan said he had had a “short, heated conversation” with Dr. Barbot. Without elaborating, he said that the exchange left him “very infuriated” and prompted him to contact City Hall. He also said Dr. Barbot had apologized.
After The Post published its story, the Sergeants Benevolent Association posted a tweet that referred to Dr. Barbot as a “bitch” with “blood on her hands.”
Mr. de Blasio said on Thursday that he was not previously aware of the flare up between Dr. Barbot and Chief Monahan, but that “if what was reported was accurate, the commissioner needs to apologize to the men and women of the N.Y.P.D.”
Commissioner Shea, referring to the union’s tweet at a City Council hearing, said “there should be no place for that foul language. It’s completely inappropriate.”
Mr. Gallahue declined to comment on the union’s Twitter post.
This Queens diner has transformed into a pop-up drive-in.
Before the pandemic, a large menu and relatively cheap prices kept the Bel Aire Diner packed.
“We haven’t locked the doors in 25 years,” said Patricia Dellaportas, an owner of the retro-style diner in Astoria, Queens.
But now, unable to serve patrons in its comfortable turquoise booths, the diner — like many New York restaurants struggling to stay afloat during the lockdown — decided to pivot. Bel Aire’s solution was to turn its parking lot into a pop-up drive-in theater.
On Wednesday night, people headed there in dozens of cars for two socially distant screenings of “Dirty Dancing.” The film was projected on a 25-foot outdoor screen; the audio played through a local radio station. Customers ordered food like hot dogs, sliders and popcorn from the restaurant’s website.
The diner shares how and when to get tickets to its screenings — its first was “Grease” on May 7 — on its social media pages.
“It’s an amazing way to get the community together and out of their house,” Victoria Philios, the diner’s event coordinator, said. “We’re sold out tonight and feel very fortunate that we’re keeping busy.”
The Port Authority says it needs $3 billion in aid to keep construction on track.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said major construction projects in the metropolitan area would be in jeopardy unless the federal government sent the agency $3 billion in aid.
The pandemic has stifled activity at the region’s airports and other transportation facilities the Port Authority operates. The bistate agency, which does not usually rely on public funding, estimates its revenues will fall about $3 billion short of projections over two years.
Without help from Washington to fill that gap, the Port Authority said it would have to postpone work on some planned improvements of infrastructure, including an overhaul of Kennedy International Airport. Construction on that $13 billion project was scheduled to begin this summer, said Rick Cotton, the Port Authority’s executive director.
“Our region cannot afford, now, to walk away from these jobs or these billions of dollars of construction spending,” Mr. Cotton and the agency’s chairman, Kevin O’Toole, said in a letter this week to the congressional delegations from New York and New Jersey. “They would drive the recovery.”
In the letter, dated May 13, they asked that the Port Authority be included in a proposed $3 trillion stimulus package that would provide aid to cities and states. Democrats introduced that bill on Wednesday, but Senate Republicans indicated they did not consider it urgent.
“Yes, this is an unusual event for us,” Mr. Cotton said in an interview. But, he added, “We are a local government entity and the current focus of this coming bill is providing aid to state and local governments.”
The Port Authority has no taxing powers. It derives the bulk of its revenue from airport fees, tolls on bridges and tunnels between New Jersey and New York City, and fares from the PATH train system.
But traffic at the airports and on the PATH is down at least 95 percent since the outbreak’s spread. Travelers will not return in large numbers until a coronavirus vaccine is available, Mr. Cotton said.
Along with the Kennedy Airport redevelopment, the agency is planning new AirTrains at La Guardia and Newark Liberty International airports, an extension of the PATH to Newark Liberty, and a rebuild of the main bus terminal in Manhattan.
Reporting was contributed by Michael Gold, Corey Kilgannon, Patrick McGeehan, Jesse McKinley, Brittainy Newman, Michael Paulson, Azi Paybarah, Ashley Southall and Matt Stevens.
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