NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday that New York City hadn't seen an uptick in the percentage of people testing positive for coronavirus despite a week of reopening and several weeks of protests—but he warned the next few weeks will show if there's been a resurgence of the virus.
The mayor said subway and bus ridership was up significantly this past week as the city entered Phase 1 of reopening, which allows construction, manufacturing and curbside retail to restart.
De Blasio said between June 3 and June 10, subway ridership was up 25 percent, while bus ridership was up 23 percent. Ridership on the Staten Island Ferry was up 31 percent.
Traffic into Manhattan over East River bridges jumped 17 percent and traffic into Manhattan over Harlem River bridges rose 14 percent, de Blasio said.
After the first week of reopening and after several weeks of large protests, de Blasio said the city hasn't seen an uptick in emergency room visits for flulike symptoms or in the percentage of New Yorkers testing positive for COVID-19.
"The indicators, they've been stable and very much in the range we want them to be," the mayor said.
Of the protests, de Blasio said, "the fact that everything occured outdoors is important."
"We know for a fact that exposure is limited more outdoors than indoors," he said, adding that he saw most protesters wearing masks as well.
But the mayor warned that the weeks ahead are key and will paint a bigger picture.
"What we're happy to say is over this last period of time, as we've been ready for the restart and now begun the restart, we've seen actually steady progress on our indicators," he said. "But the big test comes later in the month as we start to see the impact of so many people being closer together."
"Remember it takes time for this disease to be spread. It takes time for it to manifest," he said. "We're not going to see it instantly. If there is a resurgence, we would see it in the second half of the month."
"My view is when you get to the last week of June, you're going to have a much better sense of how all of this is adding up and if we can move forward effectively into Phase 2, and it's going to be a constant conversation with the state," de Blasio said.
When it comes to key indicators tracking the spread of the coronavirus, the mayor said the daily numbers for June 10 (there is a two-day lag) were good.
The daily number of patients admitted to hospitals for suspected COVID-19 was 70, below the threshold of 200.
The daily number of patients in city hospital ICUs with suspected COVID-19 was 339, also below the threshold of 375.
And the percentage of people testing positive for COVID-19 citywide was 3 percent, well below the 15 percent threshold.
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