The mayor of the city of New York, Bill de Blasio, has proposed this Sunday to state authorities the closure of all non-essential activities, including educational centers, in the nine postal districts of the city where coronavirus outbreaks have been detected and in which the rate of positive test results has remained above 3% during the last seven days.
The WHO considers that the pandemic is uncontrolled above 5%.
Madrid is at levels of 20%.
In a statement, the mayor has requested that the non-essential activity stoppage begin on October 7 and has also asked that “high-risk” activities be banned in eleven other New York zip codes, including Brooklyn. and Queens.
The councilor's proposal, which needs the approval of Governor Andrew Cuomo to be effective, proposes, among other things, that restaurants can only offer take-out food and home delivery and that service on terraces and in indoor dining rooms be canceled. .
De Blasio also recommends that schools and non-essential businesses remain closed for at least two weeks and that if in this period, the rate of positives in covid-19 tests does not drop below 3% than the closure continue another two weeks.
"New Yorkers have worked hard to fight the pandemic and we are not making this recovery lightly, but science guides our decisions in the city," said De Blasio, before stressing the importance of wearing a mask and maintaining social distance.
According to data provided by local authorities, two of these areas have been registering levels above 3% for fourteen days, another above 4%, in two other areas they have exceeded 5% and in the rest they are between 6 and 8% of positives.
In addition, in the other eleven districts where the closure of “high risk” activities is recommended, such as gyms and swimming pools or consumption inside bars and restaurants, the positive analysis index has fluctuated between 2 and 3 %.
For his part, Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has not commented on De Blasio's proposal, has accused "local governments" of not having done effective work in those postal areas with outbreaks.
In addition to the peaks recorded in New York City, especially in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, outbreaks have also been detected in two counties: Rockland and Orange.
“Local governments have not done an effective job in these hot spot zip codes.
The state will make an aggressive application starting tomorrow, ”he said.
Cuomo also expressed concern about the shortage of COVID-19 tests in schools and warned that "if localities do not immediately test schools in those areas, the state will close them immediately."
"Without testing, we cannot guarantee the safety of schools to parents and teachers," he stressed.
The Governor also announced that New York State will deploy personnel to directly enforce state guidelines within these areas.
According to data provided by Cuomo, in total there are 20 zip codes throughout the state that have registered major spikes.
The average rate of positive cases in these areas is 4.8%.
Cuomo wanted to insist that in the rest of the state - without counting the areas of the outbreaks - the rate of positive results is 0.91%.
Authorities first reported the location of several outbreaks last weekend.
However, so far, they have been unable to control the outbreaks as concerns mount that they could spread to other areas of the city.
Information about the coronavirus
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