NY – A 24-year-old boy drowned on a New York City beach that was closed to bathers to contain the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirusWhile the large city is still preparing for a reopening in the first half of June, local media reported on Saturday.
The man, identified as Fidel Ramírez, was bathing with two friends on the beach in Rockaway (Queens) on Friday when he was swept away by a strong current and had to be rescued by the emergency services., who took him to a hospital where only his death could be certified, collects the ABC7 channel.
Mayor Bill de Blasio echoed the event on his Twitter account, where he expressed his condolences to the young man’s family and friends but also recalled that swimming on the beaches of the Big Apple is prohibited during the COVID-19 crisis and emphasized that “it is not safe”, since there are not even vigilantes supervising the coast.
This long weekend, marked by the Memorial Day holiday that takes place on Monday, would have involved the start of the summer season and the opening of beaches to bathers, but the City Council only allows citizens to walk or sit while maintaining the social distance and wearing facial cover.
De Blasio added that the local authorities, who work to keep the COVID-19 indicators below maximum thresholds in order to pass to phase one of economic reopening, “do not want to put fences on the beaches” but will do so if necessary , and has deployed more police officers to monitor compliance with the rules.
We just lost a young man who got caught in a dangerous current in the Rockaways. Our hearts break for his family and his friends.
– Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) May 22, 2020
Other beaches in New York State and neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut have indeed opened, coinciding with the holidays, pOr what its residents feared was a massive influx of New Yorkers that, in all likelihood, has not occurred due to the expected rainy weather throughout the day this Saturday.
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