Mayor Bill de Blasio: “all roads are leading to the first half of June” for re-opening

Speaking at his daily press conference, Mayor Bill de Blasio said, "It's a pretty good day," in reference to the city’s path towards re-opening.

The Mayor clarified saying, “So, indicator one, daily number of people admitted to hospitals for suspected COVID-19 – that is down from 63 to 60. And number two, daily number of people in ICUs across Health + Hospitals for suspected COVID-19 – that is down from 483 to 477. The only one that's up, again only up by one point, is the percent of people tested positive for COVID-19 – up from 8 percent to 9 percent.” 

The Mayor continued by saying that, “I want to signal it as clear as a bell - all roads are leading to the first half of June.”

Speaking about the expansive food delivery that has taken place as a response to the pandemic, the Mayor said that “the city of New York has distributed 32 million meals to New Yorkers who needed food, and this effort is growing every day. By next week, over a million meals will be delivered per day.”

The Mayor also spoke about the NYPD’s plans to fight crime this summer with their "Summer All Out" which places 300 officers in the 10 precincts most affected by gun violence. The Mayor explained that, “It's an NYPD operation where officers who work in office settings in different specialized areas of the department go out to neighborhoods and work at the grassroots level.”

The Mayor also spoke about the Staten Island Ferry saying that, “Staten Islanders depend on the Staten Island Ferry in a very, very powerful way.” Mayor announced that, “We're now going to run every 30 minutes from 5:00 AM to 9:00 AM and every 30 minutes from 3:30 PM to 7:30 PM so a step forward in terms of increasing rush hour service on the Staten Island ferry and giving people more space as a result.”

The Mayor also spoke about the city’s blood shortage saying that, “We need New Yorkers who can give blood to give blood, it’s a very important moment in history because we're dealing with this crisis. It's disrupted all the normal blood donation drives that happen each year. We want people who can to do it.”

Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.