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The teeming New York is empty with the return of containment – rts.ch

Symbol of the city that never stops, which is constantly teeming, New York is now an almost deserted megalopolis with the return of confinement, the closure of thousands of shops and closed-door public schools.

Mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed on Wednesday the closure of public schools in the city on Thursday after the test positivity rate reached the 3% threshold, from which he had pledged to take this measure, in particular with the teachers’ unions.

“We have to fight against the second wave”, he justified, less than two months after the reopening of schools, after much hesitation. This measure is controversial, in the first place because the positivity rate does not exceed 0.19% in schools.

While a curfew has already been imposed on bars, other restrictions should soon follow, such as the closure of gyms and restaurants.

A heavy bill for traders

New York schools will remain closed. [EPA/Justin Lane – Keystone]On the famous 5th Avenue, a climate of gloom has replaced the crowd of spending customers usually present. In Times Square, there is also more animation on the giant screens than on the sidewalks. And in the capital of finance, the bill is paid in cash for traders and tourism players.

“This pandemic has decimated all facets of our industry. This concerns all major institutions, the hotel sector, but especially small businesses. They have been particularly affected. It is very, very difficult for them”, confides Christopher Heywood, tourist manager, within 12:45.

“We haven’t paid the rent since March. Our landlord has agreed so far. He is trying to do us a favor so that we can survive,” says Mukhtar Ahmed, a merchant in New York. “But a lot of landlords aren’t cooperating, they’re evicting a lot of people. My friend next door, who’s Chinese, had to close and he lost his $100,000 bond.”

The city most bereaved by the first wave

City most bereaved by the first wave of the epidemic in the spring, New York has so far resisted the second quite well: with 3% positivity, the metropolis and the whole of New York State are among the less affected in the United States.

Many states are deploring double-digit positivity rates, sometimes around 50% in the Midwest. And the authorities fear a new outbreak of the virus with family reunions for the Thanksgiving holiday on November 26.

The case of El Paso, Texas, is an example of this explosion far from New York: in two months, the number of cases has increased by 242% in the county, which had more than 77,000 Covid cases on Wednesday. -19 and 804 deaths. A total of 19% of Covid-19 tests are positive in El Paso, compared to the Texas average around 11%.

The United States is the country most affected in terms of both the number of deaths and cases, with more than 249,700 deaths for 11,441,946 cases recorded, according to the count by Johns Hopkins University, which refers.

>> The details of Jordan Davis in La Matinale:

New York City closes all its schools in the face of the second wave / La Matinale / 2 min. / November 19, 2020

boi with afp

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