As COVID rates drop, New York boosts capacity at museums, zoos, movie theaters and indoor arenas
New York is ready to ease COVID capacity restrictions for museums, movie theaters, large arenas and other businesses as the city’s positivity rate dipped below 5% for the first time since November
Gov. Cuomo announced Monday that museums and zoos can go to 50% next week, while indoor sports venues will go from 10% to 25% capacity on May 19.
The move will allow more fans in the stands in time for the NBA playoffs.
In a sign that vaccination efforts are having the intended effect, Mayor de Blasio said that the 7-day average positivity rate for the five boroughs as of Friday stood at 4.91% — a milestone he described as “a profoundly good sign.”
“Everyone’s been working really hard. Let’s keep working. Let’s just run COVID out of this town once and for all,” the mayor said at his morning press briefing. “Things are really starting to change.”
The last time the positivity rate in the Big Apple dipped that low was Nov. 29.
The rate the mayor cited Monday is taken from preliminary data and is subject to change, one city health official noted, but it’s also backed up by the relatively rapid pace at which vaccines have been administered in the city since January.
Coronavirus variants, which have accounted for more than half of new cases in recent weeks, have kept the positivity rate higher than health officials would like to see, but since the beginning of April that rate has seen a steady decline, according to city health stats.
Cuomo, meanwhile, has continued to relax restrictions in recent weeks as the state’s coronavirus numbers decline. The seven-day average positivity rate for the state was 2.85% on Sunday, the lowest figure since Nov. 13.
“We’re actually back to where we were before we hit the holiday increase,” Cuomo said Monday during a press briefing from his Manhattan office. “So that’s very good news.”
Hospitalizations linked to the virus statewide reported 3,783 patients on Sunday with 836 people being treated in intensive care units, the lowest number since Dec. 4.
Another 44 New Yorkers died from coronavirus-related causes Sunday.
The state’s revised capacity limits come as Cuomo recently eased curfew rules for bars and restaurants, which can now stay open until midnight as of Monday.
According to the state, roughly 28% of all New Yorkers are now completely vaccinated against the virus.
So far, more than 5.7 million vaccine doses have been given out in the five boroughs. Some vaccination sites now offer walk-in appointments, and de Blasio suggested Monday that the city is considering converting more sites to same-day walk-ins to further speed New Yorkers getting their shots.
“The goal here, of course, is to make vaccination as convenient as possible. We want to welcome people to it, and I think honestly convenience has been one of the issues, and the more convenient it gets, the easier it will be for people to make that choice,” the mayor said during a morning briefing. “But we also want to be careful about not having big lines ... Obviously, we don’t people waiting a long time. So we’ve been testing it, expanding the tests — so far, so good — and we’re looking to see if we can go farther.”
De Blasio announced Monday that a new city-run vaccine site at the American Museum of Natural History will open by the end of the week. It will prioritize public housing residents and cultural institution workers but be open to all city residents.
Cuomo, who has held a string of press-free events featuring fawning supporters in recent weeks, downplayed the results of a Siena College poll showing his favorability rating has dipped as he faces allegations of sexual harassment, calls for his resignation, an impeachment inquiry and a federal investigation into his administration’s oversight of nursing homes during the pandemic.
While his favorability, job performance and reelection ratings all fell, the poll found a majority of New Yorkers don’t believe he should step down and most say he’s doing a good job managing the COVID crisis.
“I don’t know what that means,” Cuomo said. “I don’t know how people can say ‘I think you’re doing a good job,’ but the favorable goes down. They do these polls all the time. To tell you the truth, I don’t put too much stock into them.
“I’m going to focus on my job, that’s what I’ve always done. Public opinion goes up, it goes down. If you’re doing the job, people respect the job you’re doing,” he added.
