NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Mayor Bill de Blasio touched on everything from the Sept. 11 anniversary to indoor dining and the 2020 Census at his daily briefing on Thursday. Here's what to know.
1. De Blasio opened his briefing with comments on the 19th anniversary of 9/11, which is on Friday. He paid tribute to the thousands of people who were killed and praised, "The compassion, the strength, the resiliency this city showed in our most difficult moment." He said that strength and resiliency would carry the city through the current pandemic.
"Tomorrow we mourn again. We honor those we lost, their greatness. We miss them and we take inspiration from them as we move forward," de Blasio said. "On that horrible day, we never could have imagined this moment in history. But I think those heroes we lost would tell us to once again to believe in New York City, believe in each other and move forward."
2. The mayor also reminded New Yorkers that there are just 20 days left to respond to the 2020 Census, with all offices scheduled to complete their work by Sept. 30. "It still doesn't get all the attention it deserves, but it literally will determine so much of what happens over the next decade in this city," he said.
The city's self-response rate is currently 58.9 percent, compared to the national response rate of 65.5 percent. "We've made some progress … but we're still behind the national average," de Blasio said. "This has to be a supreme group effort in this city—everyone together just like we fought back the coronavirus."
More 2020 Census information can be found at my2020census.gov or by calling 1-844-330-2020.
3. On Wednesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that indoor dining would be allowed in New York City at 25% capacity starting on Sept. 30. De Blasio said indoor dining is coming back "with rigorous safety measures, with real limits, with careful inspections, because we have to get it right."
The mayor said a citywide infection rate between 2% and 3% would trigger "a reevaluation of the whole situation" on indoor dining. "If we're already at 2%, it means something is moving in the wrong direction and we need to take quick measures to stop that from growing," he said. The city's current infection rate is 1.09%.
De Blasio also revealed that he found out about the state's decision to allow indoor dining about an hour after his briefing on Wednesday, when he had indicated a decision hadn't been made. "The state made clear that they felt they were ready. We expressed our view as the city. And they went forward with the policy," de Blasio said, adding that conversations have been happening for weeks. The mayor said the city took "a very conservative position on this matter" during talks with the state.
4. Asked about how many cases can be expected in public schools when they reopen on Sept. 21, de Blasio said, "Of course there will be some cases. It's normal that there would be."
"I think we're going into something that's different from any experience we had before," the mayor said. "Of course there will be days where you'll find a case in a classroom and a classroom has to be shut down. There will even be some times when a school has to be shut down." But de Blasio said many safety measures are being taken and any closures "will be a temporary reality, and then people come back and proceed." He said it "really depends so much on individuals."
5. De Blasio also gave updates on the three indicators tracking the spread of the coronavirus in the city.
He said the daily number of hospital admissions for suspected COVID-19 on Sept. 6 was 78 patients, below the threshold of 200 patients. The confirmed positivity rate for those patients was 10%.
The number of new reported cases on a seven-day average ending on Sept. 6 was 213 cases, also below the threshold of 500 cases.
The percentage of people tested for COVID-19 who were positive citywide on Sept. 4 was 1.09%, below the threshold of 5%.
