New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced he plans to close public schools, yeshivas and other non-public schools in nine neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens due to a spike in COVID-19 cases. Day care centers, preschools and non-essential businesses are to be closed as well, the mayor said during a news briefing in which he added that restaurants would be restricted to take-out and pickup orders only, beginning this Wednesday.
The new lockdown, which initially is set to last for the next two to four weeks, affects nine zip codes in portions of Far Rockaway, Borough Park, Midwood, Gravesend, Bensonhurst, Sheepshead Bay and Kew Gardens, according to The Hill.
Houses of worship will remain open, however, according to the New York Post.
All nine areas set for the lockdown showed virus infection rates at three percent or higher for at least seven consecutive days, de Blasio said.
“We’re having an extraordinary problem, something we haven’t seen since spring,” the mayor said. He acknowledged that any shutdown plan will “require the support and approval of the state” and that the city will hold “intensive” talks with Governor Andrew Cuomo’s staff beginning Monday to work on ways to address the situation.
“This can only happen with state approval,” de Blasio admitted. “We’ll be working to get approval. We understand this is uncharted territory.”
“You want to reduce the level of activity in the community, that’s what worked in the past,” de Blasio said. He also said an additional 11 neighborhoods are on a “watch list” being monitored for a “growing problem” but for the time being, schools and nonessential businesses are not yet being shut down in those areas. Indoor dining will, however, be restricted.