People walk and ride bicycles over the Brooklyn Bridge before the skyline of lower Manhattan, New York on April 25, 2021.
Ed Jones | AFP | Getty Images
New York City will reopen in full capacity starting July 1, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday.
“Our plan is to fully reopen on July 1. We are ready for stores to open, for businesses to open, offices, theaters, full strength,” de Blasio said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Restaurants, gyms, shops, hair salons and arenas will open at full capacity. Meanwhile, smaller theaters could reopen over the summer and Broadway is on track for opening by September. Schools will be back at “full strength” in the fall.
It’s the first time the city will be fully reopen in more than a year. New York City first shut down March 2020 when it became the original epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic in the U.S.
“What we’re seeing is that people have gotten vaccinated at extraordinary numbers,” de Blasio said.
New York City as of Wednesday had administered more than 6 million doses of Covid vaccines, with roughly 36% of the city’s adult population fully vaccinated, according to city data. More than half the city’s adult population has received at least one dose of a vaccine.
“This is going to be the summer of New York City,” the mayor said. “I think people are going to flock to New York City because they want to live again.”
It wasn’t immediately clear whether mask mandates will stay in place through the summer.
On Wednesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the state would lift dining curfews statewide and a ban on bar seating in the city starting in May. Seating at bars will be allowed in New York City starting May 3, while outdoor dining curfews of midnight are set to end by May 17. Meantime, indoor dining curfews will expire May 31.
