Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says the city is developing multiple plans and contingencies for a safe return to school in the fall.
The mayor says 75% of parents surveyed want to send their kids back to school in September, and precautions being taken include daily deep cleaning of schools, face covering and social distancing requirements, and hand washing stations.
NEW YORK CITY
The city launches its Open Restaurants program starting Friday. The program expands restaurant seating options onto car-free streets for select corridors throughout the five boroughs.
Baseball is back! The Mets have their full workout Friday at Citi Field in Queens. And the Yankees will have their first team workout Saturday.
Alternate Side Parking will be suspended next week, through July 12, and the Staten Island Ferry will go back to pre-COVID rush hour service Monday, offering rides every 15 minutes between 7 a.m.-9 a.m. and 5 p.m. - 7 p.m. Addtionially, 20-minute service will be offered between 6 a.m. - 7 a.m. and 3:50 p.m. - 4:50 p.m.
The High Line will reopen to the public with limited capacity on July 16 after temporarily closing in March to help limit the spread of COVID-19. The High Line, working with NYC Parks, also issued visitation protocols to ensure that visitors can maintain social distancing in full accordance with city guidelines.
NEW YORK STATE
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday that 918 COVID-19 tests came back positive on Thursday.
Those 918 positive tests represent just 1.38% of the 66,392 test results reported to the state.
Total hospitalizations were under 900 for a fifth day, falling to 857.
Cuomo also announced nine new deaths related to COVID-19.
NEW JERSEY
Casinos, outdoor amusement parks and water parks, museums and libraries, indoor recreation and gyms and fitness centers for individualized training by appointment are reopening Thursday, with social distancing and face covering requirements in place.
New Jersey racetracks, casinos, amusement parks reopen
Gov. Phil Murphy said the Community Contact Tracing Corps has added more than 130 additional contact tracers since last week, for a total of 357. Rutgers School of Public Health has invited 859 current local public health workers to be trained and more than 600 have completed their training.
Murphy signed an Executive Order raising the limit on crowd size for outdoor gatherings to 500 people, effective Friday. Limits on all indoor gatherings, which are 25% of capacity, but with a maximum of 100 people, remain unchanged.
He said indoor pools may reopen at 25% capacity with social distancing in place.
New Jersey reported 539 new positive cases of COVID-19, bringing the state total to 172,356. An additional 27 deaths brings the state toll to 13,251.
CONNECTICUT
A federal lawsuit has been filed to make mail-in voting for the November election available to all eligible voters in Connecticut. An executive order signed by Governor Ned Lamont allows voters to use absentee ballots in the August 11th primary. But that order expires before November 3rd.
Gov. Ned Lamont said Thursday that the state reported more than 11,000 COVID-19 tests on Wednesday and just 0.6% were positive. Connecticut administered more than 80,000 tests over the last week and the percent of positive cases was under 1% each day.
Lamont said airline bookings into the state are down significantly since New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut issued a travel advisory for incoming travelers from 16 states that have a high positive test rate to undertake a 14-day quarantine.
COVID-19 CLUSTER LINKED TO NY HOUSE PARTY
Rockland County officials announced a coronavirus cluster Wednesday linked to a house party in West Nyack. Officials say there have been at least eight confirmed cases, with one test pending, in West Nyack and New City.
The patients are mainly among young adults in their 20s, who were connected to the party on June 17. Officials say the party host was already symptomatic, and since the initial party, there were at least two other parties with some common attendees.
COVID-19 IN NEW YORK CITY STARTED AS EARLY AS FEB: STUDY
A new study has shown evidence the coronavirus was circulating in New York City in the beginning of February. The research conducted by Mount Sinai found New Yorkers had antibodies to the virus as early as February 23.
Coronavirus spread in NYC started early February: study
That would mean they would have been infected with the virus about two weeks earlier. The first confirmed case was on March 1.
The new study has yet to undergo formal review, but experts say the work is credible and backs up what many believed.
FAUCI'S WARNING
The U.S. is "going in the wrong direction" with the coronavirus surging badly enough that Dr. Anthony Fauci told senators Tuesday some regions are putting the entire country at risk - just as schools and colleges are wrestling with how to safely reopen.
With about 40,000 new cases being reported a day, Fauci, the government's top infectious disease expert, said he "would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around."
WATCH EYEWITNESS TO A PANDEMIC (Episode 4)
Eyewitness to a Pandemic: Episode 4 - The Apex
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