NEW YORK — Mayor de Blasio held a briefing with updates on COVID-19 in NYC. Watch below.
Breaking Updates:
- De Blasio says over 1 million COVID tests have been done at H+H sites in NYC since March.
- New York announces new “Shop Your City” campaign to help local small businesses.
- The imitative will help consumers find local independent businesses to patronize.
- NYC schools update
- Mayor said the new plan will be announced next week to reopen the city schools
- Every child will have to have a consent form on file to enter school buildings again
- We want to be able to test any child at any point, de Blasio said
- At this point, it is not planned to require students be vaccinated to be in schools once a vaccine is available, de Blasio said.
- The mayor said under the new plan, it could be possible for a school in a red or orange zone to be open, if they put in place the new safety measures.
- De Blasio admits he and the city “didn’t have a plan B and should have had a plan B,” but said their focus was instead on taking actions to keep positivity rate down and fixing issues with blended learning.
- Daily Indicators
- Suspected COVID-19 hospital admissions: 141, with 45% of those testing positive
- Reported COVID-19 cases, 7-day average: 1,447
- Daily percent of NYC residents testing positive: 2.74%
- 7-day average: 3.05%
- Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
- A special made-for-TV version of the annual celebration
- Won’t be a big event for spectators this year
- “It’s going to be something very special,” the mayor said.
Original story:
As New York continues to see an increase in COVID-19 cases, new restrictions take effect in Staten Island, Upper Manhattan and parts of Long Island.
The rise of cases in the borough of Staten Island has raised concern. The whole borough has been designated as orange and yellow zones.
An emergency COVID patient facility was set up on South Beach in Staten Island and has accepted its first patient.
Staten Island University Hospital Exec. Director Dr. Brahim Ardolic discussed how many patients the field hospital can receive and whether or not health officials believe they will reach full capacity.
In an orange zone, houses of worship are limited to 33% capacity or a maximum of 25 people and high-risk non-essential businesses such as gyms and personal care shops must close.
All schools, public and private, must also close.
Public school students in New York City are already on a remote curriculum, so they would not be affected by the new restrictions.
Additionally, restaurants can only offer takeout, delivery and outdoor dining with a maximum of four people. Both residential and non-residential gatherings are limited to a maximum of 10 people.
The northern part of the borough remains a yellow zone.
New yellow zones were also designated in Riverhead and Hampton Bays in Suffolk County as well as Great Neck and Massapequa Park in Nassau County.
Upper Manhattan was also named a yellow zone, Cuomo said earlier this week.
In a yellow zone, houses of worship are limited to 50% capacity and indoor and outdoor dining at restaurants is restricted to a maximum of four people per table. Residential gatherings are limited to a maximum of 10 people and non-residential gatherings — indoors and outdoors — are allowed up to 25 people.
The orange- and yellow-zone restrictions go into effect on Wednesday for businesses and Thursday for all schools, according to the governor.
