NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday that New York City is indefinitely postponing indoor dining, originally expected to be a part of the city's Phase 3 reopening next Monday.
"I want to make very clear, we cannot go ahead at this time with indoor dining in New York City," de Blasio said at his briefing, warning that other states have seen an increase in cases after opening bars and restaurants indoors.
"Even a week ago, honestly, I was hopeful we could, but the news we've gotten from around the country gets worse and worse all the time," de Blasio said.
He said the city will work with the state "to figure out what is the exact right way to do this; how to postpone indoor dining until the right moment; what the approach would be to determine when it makes sense to go about it again."
Under the original plan to allow indoor dining under Phase 3 on July 6, restaurants would have been required to operate indoors at 50 percent capacity. They also would have been required to build five-foot barriers between tables if they couldn't maintain social distancing. Workers would have had to wear face coverings, as would customers when they weren't seated.
"It is not the time to forge ahead with indoor dining, but it is the time to double down on outdoor dining," the mayor said, adding that 6,600 restaurants have so far taken part in the Open Restaurants initiative, which allows restaurants to expand their seating onto sidewalks and even streets.
New York City beaches begin opening Wednesday, de Blasio also said, ahead of the Fourth of July weekend.
"This is something people have been waiting patiently for—maybe not always patiently for—but it's here," the mayor said.
He said lifeguards are ready to welcome beach goers for the holiday weekend.
Fifteen outdoor pools will open "in the next few weeks," de Blasio said. The first three will open July 24 and 12 more will open Aug. 1.
De Blasio also announced that $115 million will be invested in summer programs under the new city budget.
"That's going to reach 115,000 young people in this city," the mayor said of both new and existing summer programs.
The programs include 500 youth acting as ambassadors for social distancing and the city's test and trace program.
"They'll get paid to do this good work—give them meaningful, productive work to do, rewarding work to do—and they'll help us to keep people safe," de Blasio said.
The funding will also go towards the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) program and summer camps, the mayor said, with 35,000 youth taking part in career readiness and learning activities with SYEP and another 81,000 youth involved in summer camps, among other programs.
When it comes to key indicators tracking the coronavirus, de Blasio said "again, good news in New York City."
The daily number of people admitted to hospitals for suspected COVID-19 was 61 patients on June 29 (there is a two-day lag in reporting), under the threshold of 200 patients.
The daily number of people admitted to public intensive care units in the city was 293 patients, also under the threshold of 375.
The percentage of people testing positive citywide was 2 percent, under the threshold of 15 percent.
"That's the number we've been at most of the time in the last few weeks and that is a very, very good number," de Blasio said.
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