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New York City won’t be returning to normal anytime soon. According to Mayor Bill de Blasio at his daily press briefing, the city has no firm plans to resume indoor dining amid the coronavirus pandemic.
That could be devastating for the city as restaurants and other businesses are struggling to stay afloat without full business.
“We haven’t been able to set a firm standard because we see a real problem and challenge here,” de Blasio said, via the New York Post. “And what we need to do first and foremost is focus on the health and safety of New Yorkers and on bringing back our city smartly and not allowing the mistakes we’ve seen in so much of the country and so much of the world.”
Dr. Jay Varma, the mayor’s senior adviser for public health, added:
“We know through experience everywhere around the world and also from the United States that indoor dining is a very high-risk activity and there’s reasons for that. We’ve been through an extremely traumatic time for everyone with thousands of deaths and we need to be cautious about introducing a high-risk activity into a place that we know is extremely vulnerable.”
New York City was once the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States, but it’s strict safety measures helped stop the spread of the virus and has allowed the city to slowly begin reopening without seeing cases spike.
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The coronavirus mainly comes from animals and a majority of those who were infected early either worked at or frequently visited the Huanan seafood wholesale market in Wuhan, according to The Guardian. The virus is similar to Severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (Mers).
The Wuhan coronavirus is transmitted from person to person through “droplet transmission.” That means an infected person can pass the virus by sneezing or coughing on another person as well as by direct contact.
While a majority of the cases have been detected in the United States and China — with more than 5.72 million confirmed cases and 177,000 deaths in the United States — it has now reached many countries around the world. It has also been confirmed in Italy, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and many other eastern countries.
