NEW YORK (WABC) Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Wednesday, a flurry of COVID restrictions that will be lifted in New York.
The governor said effective March 22, the final five yellow zone restrictions will be lifted and that all clusters will be lifted.
Indoor fitness classes, primarily in New York City, will reopen on March 22 with restrictions.
Those remaining clusters included East Bronx, West Bronx, Manhattan, Newburgh, New Windsor and Queens, Kew Gardens/Forest Hills.
In addition, the governor announced that indoor fitness classes, primarily in New York City, will reopen on March 22 with restrictions.
They will be subject to the same safety protocols that have been in place all across the state including, 33% capacity limits, masks, social distancing and equipment cleaning.
NEW YORK (WABC) If people continue to be vaccinated at the current pace, New York City tourism officials predict up to 38 million visitors will travel to the city in 2021. That is up dramatically from last year, but still only about half the amount of people who visited in 2019.
New York City needs tourism to survive and the industry employs more than 400,000 people in the Tri-State area.
Tourism was one of the hardest-hit industries, but also an industry economists say could be the first to bounce back. They have expected an increase of visitors beginning this spring. Hopefully by the holiday season we will see a return of tourists, a return of all the restaurants, certainly a return of radio city music hall, Broadway shows, because that s what we really need, said Barbara Denham, a Senior CRE Economist with Moody s Analytics.
With so many businesses shut down, will our neighborhood downtowns rebuild?
When will we see Broadway shows again?
Also, could this year of stress and change have a long-term impact on our health?
With so much to dissect, any discussion about reopening and getting into this so-called normal, revolves around one thing - the vaccine.
On Sunday, the nation set a new record for vaccinations in a single day, but there is still a long way to go. 22.5% of New York residents have gotten one dose, and more than 11% are fully vaccinated. In New Jersey, nearly 24% of people have partial protection, and 12% have completed the inoculation. And in Connecticut, 26% of people have at least one shot at 26%, while just under 14% are fully vaccinated.
The CDC says nearly 71 million Americans, or just over a quarter of the adult population, have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while nearly one in 10 of all adults is fully vaccinated.
Shakespeare in the Park is returning this summer following a hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, with the free outdoor series returning to the Public Theater's Delacorte Theater in Central Park in July.