New York cautiously starts to reopen for business after coronavirus lockdown
After three bleak months, New York, the corner of the US hit hardest by the coronavirus, gradually began reopening on Monday in what was seen as a landmark moment in the crisis and a test of the city’s discipline.
With the virus in check, at least for now, many stores previously deemed non-essential were cleared to reopen – for delivery and pickup, though not browsing inside. Construction, manufacturing and wholesalers also received the go-ahead to resume.
“This is a triumph for all New Yorkers that we’ve gotten to this point,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said. More than 400,000 workers were expected to return to work on Monday. Before the pandemic, New York City had the highest employment on record, with 4.5 million people working in the city each day.
However, De Blasio also warned against complacency, and the risk of a new outbreak: “We got this far by doing it the right way, by doing the social distancing, the face coverings. We’ve got to keep doing it at those work sites and everywhere if we expect to keep moving forward.”
New York City became the focal point of the US coronavirus outbreak this spring. More than 21,000 people citywide died of confirmed or probable Covid-19. The city’s death toll accounts for roughly one in five of the 110,000 coronavirus deaths across the US.
At its peak, the virus killed more than 500 people a day in New York City in early to mid-April, overwhelming healthcare facilities, funeral homes and whole communities.
By the first week of June, daily
deaths had dropped into the single digits, and the number of people testing positive for the virus was down to 200-300 a day. In early April, more than 6,000 people a day were testing positive.
In the past week, waves of protest against the killing of George Floyd have washed across the city, and tens of thousands have gathered to demand police accountability. Floyd was killed by police during an arrest in Minneapolis, after an officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes.
Many public health experts worry the protests pit public health issues against one another. In all cases, communities of color and especially black Americans are likely to be adversely and disproportionately affected if another Covid-19 outbreak occurs.
“It’s going to be a big test,” said Dr Bruce Polsky, a city resident who is chairman of medicine at NYU Winthrop hospital in suburban Mineola. Months of social distancing, staying home, mask-wearing, hand-washing, shock and fear have made New Yorkers better prepared to keep the coronavirus under control, health experts said.
However, some healthcare workers remain worried. Dr Ian Lipkin, a Columbia University epidemiologist who had Covid-19 in March, is concerned the virus might spread during protests following Floyd’s 25 May death. And the virus’s toll in lives, despair and exhaustion weighs on him. “It’s very difficult to see how we recover,” he said.
A veteran Brooklyn nurse, Arlene Merteens, told the local news outlet Gothamist: “I know we have to go on. But I’m so afraid of it, if we really do have a second wave, what’s going to happen.”
As a small proportion of New Yorkers return to work, questions and challenges remain about how they will maintain distancing measures on usually crowded subway trains and streets, and whether the city’s character as an elbow-to-elbow city will return.
“All eyes will be on New York City over the next couple months,” said urban policy expert Jonathan Bowles, executive director of the Center for an Urban Future.
Some New Yorkers have drawn strength from crises past. New York City rebounded from a financial crisis in the 1970s, a crime peak in the 1990s and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
“You can’t keep us down,” said Carlo Scissura, president of the New York Building Congress, a construction industry group. “We may go down a little bit, but we go right back up.”
Edwin Arce, a Manhattan chef, said he thinks New Yorkers are up to the challenge. “As a city, we are ready to be back, start going out, living life with the new reality, though, of masks and 6ft [2meter] separation,” said Arce.
The city has already reawakened somewhat as warm weather has drawn people outdoors, more restaurants have offered carryout service, and as thousands of people have marched in protest over the Floyd case.
Subway ridership is ticking back up after plunging from 5.4m rides per weekday in February to under 450,000 in April, the city’s transit agency says. Subway schedules are returning to normal, though riders will see signs showing how far apart to stand on platforms, how to wear masks, and the 1-5am shutdowns that began in May will continue so trains can be cleaned.
Sam Solomon, a native New Yorker, said he wondered how “normal” the new normal will be. “I don’t know if it’s ever going to be like it was,” said Solomon, who has a health-related job. “After months of relative isolation, it’s going to be an adjustment being around so many people.”