New York City to stay closed utill June amid coronavirus pandemic

New York City, the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US, is likely to be closed till June, Mayor Bill de Blasio has said, even as three regions of New York State are set to reopen on May 15.

New York has been recording a decline in daily hospitalisations, ICU admissions and fatalities but the mayor said such progress must continue further before officials consider reopening the city."On the reopening, we're clearly not ready yet. So I think it's fair to say that June is when we are potentially going to be able to make some real



changes, if we can continue our progress," Mayor Blasio said at his daily press briefing on Monday.

He said that by the end of May or the beginning of June is when one will be "able to start filling in the blanks."

The North Country and Central NY regions have met six of the seven metrics and could be ready at the end of the week, he said.

New York state has 3,37,055 confirmed coronavirus cases with more than 26,000 people dying from the disease. New York City alone has 1,83,662 cases and 14,928 deaths.