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New Yorkers celebrate lifting of COVID restrictions with fireworks

By Tamar Lapin

June 15, 2021 | 11:14pm | Updated June 15, 2021 | 11:20pm

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New Yorkers were jubilant Tuesday night as they gathered to watch a fireworks display celebrating the end of nearly all COVID-19 restrictions.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced earlier Wednesday that he was lifting most of the state’s coronavirus precautions after New York reached a 70 percent vaccination threshold.

Fireworks explode over the New York skyline Tuesday, June 15, 2021.
Fireworks explode over the New York skyline on Tuesday, June 15, 2021.
Chad Rachman
NYC fireworks.
Fireworks lit up around NYC as most COVID-19 restrictions have ended.
Paul Martinka
NYC fireworks.
The fireworks helped honor essential workers who have helped during the pandemic.
Paul Martinka
Fireworks explode over the New York skyline.
New York has now hit the 70 percent vaccination mark.
Chad Rachman

Firework shows illuminated the skies across the Empire State to mark the milestone and to honor essential workers.

In Lower Manhattan, a large crowd burst into cheers as dazzling bursts of reds and yellows erupted over the New York Harbor, video showed.

“Hearing the boom of fireworks in Brooklyn… We’ve come a long way from banging pots at 7p every night during lockdown,” Howard Beck wrote on Twitter.

The festivities came some 15 months after the state first shut down because of the pandemic that killed tens of thousands of residents.