NEW YORK (AP) — New York City’s mayor said Sunday that he has asked the state for permission to close schools and reinstate restrictions on nonessential businesses in several neighborhoods because of a resurgence of the coronavirus.
Shutdowns would happen starting Wednesday in nine zip codes in the city, Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, said.
About 100 public schools and 200 private schools would have to close. Indoor dining, which just resumed a few days ago, would be suspended. Gyms would also close.
De Blasio said the city needed the state to sign off on the restrictions.
The action, if approved, would mark a disheartening retreat for a city that enjoyed a summer with less spread of the virus than in most other parts of the country, and had only recently celebrated the return of students citywide to in-person learning in classrooms.
Over the past two weeks, though, the number of new cases of the virus has been rising in pockets of the city, especially in neighborhoods that are home to the city’s large Orthodox Jewish population.
“We can stop this from being a second wave,” de Blasio said.
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