NYC plea for closure
De Blasio seeks power to impose restrictions in HIGH-COVID areas
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio seeks permission to close schools, businesses./
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Sunday that he will request power from the state to close in-person schools and nonessential businesses in nine Brooklyn and Queens ZIP codes as their COVID -19 cases remain over 3 percent.
De Blasio said there are 11 other ZIP codes that are in danger of going the same route and will have the opening of gyms and pools rolled back this week, as well as increased outreach on mask use and testing. Those areas are also in Brooklyn and Queens.
Many of the neighborhoods in question also have large populations of Orthodox Jews; the virus has been spreading rapidly in those communities in recent weeks.
De Blasio said the closures would start Wednesday and would affect neighborhoods including Kew Gardens, Bensonhurst and Far Rockaway. The city seeks to close schools and businesses in ZIP codes that have had a percent positive testing rate over 3 percent for seven consecutive days or more.
"It is necessary for the good of all of New York City," de Blasio said. "We have to take strategic action now to protect everyone."
The mayor’s plan, which still must be approved by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, marks the first major reversal of New York City's reopening.
Overall, 20 hot spots in the state have a positivity rate of 4.8 percent. Those places are in New York City and in Rockland and Orange counties. Three ZIP
codes in Brooklyn, Orange and Rockland counties had percent positives over 10 percent Saturday.
Outside the hot spots, New York's overall percent positive overnight was .91 percent.
Earlier Sunday, Cuomo said in a teleconference with reporters that the state would be participating in citing, and possibly closing, noncompliant businesses in the largest COVID -19 hotspots. But the governor did not suggest an entire shutdown in those areas.
His office would not comment on whether he will give de Blasio approval for the ZIP code shutdown plan — but made it clear that he thinks local governments are not handling the outbreak
appropriately.
"Local governments have not done an effective job of enforcement in these hot spot ZIP codes," Cuomo's office released a few minutes after de Blasio's live press conference started Sunday. "The state will be doing aggressive enforcement starting tomorrow. As we saw with bars and restaurants, when the state initiated enforcement actions compliance greatly increased. However, the state cannot take over effective enforcement for every jurisdiction and if a local jurisdiction cannot or will not perform effective enforcement of violating entities, notify the state and we will close all business activity in the hot spots where the local governments
cannot do compliance."
Cuomo also focused on the fact that some schools in the hot zones are not providing testing information to the state, which would then feed into the state's online schools dashboard. When asked if he was talking about private schools, specifically those in Orthodox communities, Cuomo said it was all schools he was referring to.
"I’m saying to local school districts in those hot spot ZIP codes: You need to do more tests more quickly ... because they can be a transmission point," Cuomo said, offering state help to get mass testing done in schools that request it.