Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
■ Arizona’s number of coronavirus-related hospitalizations fell below 1,000.
Number treated for COVID below 1K for first time in months
PHOENIX — Arizona on Saturday reported 54 COVID-19 deaths and 1,735 additional confirmed cases as the number of coronavirus-related hospitalizations dipped below 1,000 for the first time in four months.
With the latest figures released by the Department of Health Services, the state’s pandemic totals rose to 825,119 cases and 16,323 deaths.
Citing the state’s recent steady drop in confirmed new cases and the administration of more than 2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, Gov. Doug Ducey on Friday lifted capacity restrictions at restaurants, gyms and other businesses.
“With the vaccine rollout advancing rapidly, we continue to have hope for the future,” he said.
According to the state’s coronavirus dashboard, 18.7 percent of the state’s population has received at least one dose of vaccine, and about half of those people are fully vaccinated.
The Health System Alliance of Arizona, a group representing major hospital systems, said it opposed Ducey’s move.
“Now is not the time to relax our mitigation efforts; we must stay the course to ensure that our vaccination efforts can outpace the spread of the virus,” the group said.
Ducey’s order did not lift the state’s requirements for social distancing and masking requirements for businesses nor affect local governments’ mask mandates. Arizona doesn’t have a statewide mask mandate.
In other developments:
■ New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu on Saturday toured a mass vaccination site at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon as the state kicked off a three-day vaccination push with the goal of giving Johnson & Johnson shots to about 12,000 people.
Sununu said the state was able to move up to this weekend vaccines for individuals, most of whom were originally scheduled to receive their shots in April.
“The opportunity to vaccinate nearly 12,000 Granite Staters at one site over the course of a single weekend is an incredible opportunity for New Hampshire,” the Republican said.
■ The number of coronavirus cases and deaths due to the illness caused by the virus are rising in Texas, according to data from Johns Hopkins University on Saturday.
The seven-day rolling average of new cases in the state during the past two weeks has increased from 5,040.8 per day to 7,022.7 and the average number of daily deaths rose 127 daily to 222. The rolling average of the positivity rate is also on the rise during the same time period, from 5.8 percent on Feb. 19 to 12.5 percent on March 5.
NEW YORK — After growing cobwebs for nearly a year, movie theaters in New York City reopened Friday, returning film titles to Manhattan marquees that had for the last 12 months instead read messages like “Wear a mask” and “We’ll be back soon.”
Shortly after noon at the Angelika Film Center on Houston Street, Holly Stillman was already feeling emotional coming out of the first New York showing of Lee Isaac Chung’s tender family drama “Minari.” “My mask is drenched,” she said.
But she was equally overwhelmed by being back in a cinema. Though Stillman feared the experience would be too restrictive because of COVID-19 protocols, she instead found it euphoric.
“It was just you and the movie screen,” said Stillman. “It was wonderful to smell the popcorn as soon as I got into the theater — even though I don’t eat popcorn.”
Less than half of movie theaters are open nationwide, but reopenings are quickening. Theaters in many other areas reopened last summer around the release of Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet,” but that attempted comeback fizzled. Throughout, theaters remained shut in the five boroughs. For a year almost to the date, one of the world’s foremost movie capitals stayed dark.
For a theatrical business that has been punished by the pandemic, the resumption of moviegoing in New York is a crucial first step in revival.
“It’s a symbolic moment,” said Michael Barker, co-president of the New York-based Sony Pictures Classics, which on Friday released the Oscar contenders “The Father” and “The Truffle Hunters” in Manhattan theaters. “It says that there is hope for the theatrical world to reactivate itself.”
For some moviegoers who consider the big screen the only way to see a movie, the long-in-coming day had almost religious significance.
“Moviegoing for me is like going to church,” said JM Vargas, who had tickets Friday to “Minari,” “The Last Dragon” and “Chaos Walking.” “I’ve been waiting a year to go back to church.”
Cinemas in the city are currently operating at only 25 percent capacity, with a maximum of 50 per each auditorium. As in other places, mask wearing is mandatory, seats are blocked out and air filters have been upgraded.
Many theaters were caught off guard when Gov. Andrew Cuomo said cinemas could, under those conditions, reopen. Some of the city’s prominent theaters, including the Film Forum, the Alamo Drafthouse, the Metrograph and Regal Cinemas, were targeting openings in the coming weeks. Some needed more time to prepare. After sitting dormant all winter, the Cinema Village in Manhattan two weeks earlier burst a pipe, flooding the lobby.
“This was the worst horror movie. I don’t think any Hollywood director could have dreamed it up,” said Nicolas Nicolaou, owner of the Cinema Village and theaters in Queens and New York. “We didn’t realize we’d be 100 percent shut down for this long.”
New York, along with Los Angeles (where theaters are still closed), is one of the top movie markets. For smaller films, it’s a vital epicenter of word-of-mouth. For blockbusters, it’s a lucrative necessity. Without New York or Los Angeles open, Hollywood studios have pushed most of their larger productions until more theaters are open, or they’ve steered films to streaming services.
“The New York opening is very significant to the theater business in New York, in the nation and in the globe,” says John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theater Owners.