NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday that he aims to "fully reopen" New York City by July 1, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo later said he hopes a "functional" reopening will be "before that."
"I would hope—I am reluctant to make projections, because I think they're irresponsible—July 1," Cuomo said at a press conference, hours after de Blasio announced the plans for a full reopening.
"You have May. You have June. What happens in May? What happens in June? I would like to get the reopening—hopeful reopening date—before that," Cuomo said. "I don't want to wait that long. I think if we do what we have to do, we can be reopened earlier."
"I'm not going to predict the future, but if you said to me, 'July 1,' I hope to get there before July 1," the governor added, cautioning that "there will always be some safety precautions in the near term."
On MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Thursday morning, de Blasio said, "Our plan is to fully reopen New York City on July 1."
The mayor reiterated the goal during his briefing later in the morning, saying the city aimed to fully reopen restaurants and bars; stores, shops and small businesses; hair salons and barber shops; gyms and fitness classes; arenas and stadiums; and theaters, musical halls and museums.
NYC Mayor
"We are ready for stores to open, for businesses to open, offices, theaters—full strength," de Blasio said on MSNBC. "Because look, what we're seeing is people have gotten vaccinated in extraordinary numbers—6.3 million vaccinations in New York City to date."
"We know the vaccination effort's going to grow and grow," the mayor said. "We've got to keep working hard at that, but what's amazing is every single day we're beating back COVID more and more, hospitalizations down. You know, we're just seeing a better situation every day. We're ready to take that pathway to a full reopening."
Decisions about what to reopen—and at what capacity—have been decided by the state up until this point, something de Blasio acknowledged during his interview.
"Look, the federal government, state government always have a say, but I'm saying as leader in New York City, we're ready to come back and come back strong," he said.
De Blasio said the city's healthcare teams looked at the numbers and that the city is "well on the way" to a full return.
"We're giving COVID no room to run anymore in New York City," the mayor said. "We've said a month or so ago, it was the variants versus the vaccinations—what was going to win, which one was going to win the race? Vaccination is winning this race."
De Blasio said "COVID is plummeting," giving the city "the confidence we can pull all these pieces together and get life back, really in many ways, to where it was, where people can enjoy an amazing summer."
"This is going to be the summer of New York City. You're going to see amazing activities, cultural activities coming back. I think people are going to flock to New York City, because they want to live again," the mayor said.
At his briefing, de Blasio announced that Daniel Meyer, the CEO of the Union Square Hospitality Group, would be the new chair of the NYC Economic Development Corporation Board as the city continues its recovery.
