Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Thursday that phase one of the city’s reopening could start sometime in the first half of June, which would allow for construction, manufacturing, and retailers to reopen with restrictions, according to New York State guidelines.
“I’m basing that on what we know today, I’ll put an asterisk,” de Blasio said during his daily coronavirus press conference.
De Blasio told reporters that although his administration would decide later this month the exact date of reopening would occur, that officials were zeroing in on a date between June 1 and June 15. That time frame could change though if the city sees any spike in new cases, hospitalizations, or admittances to ICUs.
“The goal obviously is to never have to go back to the same level of restriction that we’ve been in and God forbid go to even higher levels of restriction,” the mayor said. “If we are smart about this we’ll have some ups and downs, that’s normal… but the game plan we are trying to put together here is where you don’t have the big setback.”
De Blasio called Thursday a “pretty good day” in terms of his office’s coronavirus indicator data. On Thursday, his administration reported that since May 18 the number of New Yorkers admitted to hospital suspected of having COVID-19 dropped from 63 to 60.
The number of people currently in an ICU at one of the city’s public hospital’s dropped from 483 to 477 but the percentage of people that have tested positive for the virus increased slightly from eight to nine percent.
This story was first published at amny.com. To sign up for the Gay City News email newsletter, visit gaycitynews.com/newsletter.
