NYC Mayor Proposes Post-Christmas Shutdown to Curb COVID-19 Cases

On Tuesday, NYC mayor Bill de Blasio repeatedly noted that a post-Christmas lockdown will break the COVID-19 surge, which is a clear sign of more severe restrictions coming soon. 

de Blasio Proposes Unpopular Shutdown post-Christmas

Although the NYC mayor said that he is in regular communication with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is the one to judge on the coronavirus measures, de Blasio proposed another shutdown after Christmas. 

At this point, it is not clear if Gov. Cuomo backs up the mayor’s proposal, but de Blasio hopes it would just be a matter of two to four weeks.

On Tuesday, the NYC mayor said that due to the recent COVID-19 surge, the lockdown is certainly needed and they have to do “something that resembles the PAUSE we were in in the spring."

Andrew Cuomo also added that if the coronavirus vaccine appears to be successful, "we could be out of that in a matter of weeks." 

On Monday, 73 city health care employees received the vaccine, and 41,000 doses were taken to hospitals on the following day. 

In an interview on CNN, the NYC mayor stated that the main reason for an eventual lockdown could be the hospital’s capacity for accepting infected patients and added that the sooner the restrictions are effective, the better the result would be.

According to the NYC mayor, the typical period "you can have a real impact and knock down the infection rate substantially" is between two weeks and a month.

De Blasio added that the schools shouldn’t be part of the pause shutdown as the statistics show that students are safe at school.

Following the news of the shutdown, over 1,000 restaurant owners and employees, accompanied by other trade parties, protested at Times Square, demanding the government to provide some financial relief, and the NYC Hospitality Alliance member Andrew Regie stated that "the government can't afford NOT to save the industry."

Meanwhile, the COVID-19 surge continues, and the statistic is more disturbing than ever. Since March, NYC has registered more than 28,000 coronavirus death cases, while the number of hospitalizations keeps increasing.