New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned Monday that he might tap the brakes on New York City’s reopening amid “troubling signs” that some are flouting social-distancing rules to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
“Our numbers are good, very good right now, but there are troubling signs,” Cuomo said in an interview with local cable channel NY1. “We’re seeing large social gatherings on sidewalks, et cetera, which is not helpful.”
The Big Apple was supposed to bring back indoor dining and reopen personal care businesses on July 6.
“I want to continue to move forward, but we may move forward with caution,” he said.
Echoing Cuomo, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he would “re-examine indoor dining rules” for the next phase of the city’s reopening after states that allowed restaurants to reopen earlier saw big spikes in the numbers of new cases.
Meanwhile, the Broadway League announced that all Broadway performances will be suspended for the remainder of 2020 because of the pandemic.
Cuomo’s warning came after California, which was the first state to issue a stay-at-home order in March, became the latest state to start shuttering bars to slow down the spread of the virus.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order issued Sunday, covers seven counties, including Los Angeles County, and was issued after the governors of Florida and Texas ordered bars in their states closed Friday after recording record numbers of new Covid-19 cases.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Gov. Greg Abbott, both staunch allies of President Donald Trump, had been reluctant to issue stay-at-home orders when the pandemic first began to spread and were among the most aggressively pushing to reopen their states.
Meanwhile, the death toll from the coronavirus continued to climb Monday after a grim weekend during which half-a-million fatalities were reported around the world and the number of confirmed cases topped 10 million.
More than a quarter of those deaths were in the U.S., according to an NBC News tally.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned that the actual number of cases in some hard-hit areas may be 10 times higher than reported.
Last week, Vice President Mike Pence postponed planned campaign appearances in Arizona and Florida scheduled for this week "out of an abundance of caution" because of virus spikes.
And in contrast to Trump, Pence has started wearing a face mask in public and has been encouraging others to do the same.
"We encourage everyone to wear a mask in the affected areas," Pence said Sunday. "Where you can't maintain social distancing, wearing a mask is just a good idea, especially young people."
