People ride tandem with face masks along the Coney Island boardwalk in Brooklyn, New York, as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues on May 4, 2020.
Shannon Stapleton | Reuters
New York continues to reopen more businesses amid a drop in post-holiday Covid-19 cases, but the state is keeping “one eye” on tricky variants of the virus that could reverse progress.
Indoor family entertainment centers, such as arcades, trampoline parks or laser tag facilities, are allowed to reopen at 25% capacity from March 26 with extra precautions, such as social distance, wearing a mask and regular cleaning, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday.
Outdoor theme parks may reopen on April 9 at 33% capacity with similar requirements, and parents can schedule overnight summer camps to return sometime in June, the Democratic governor said in a call with reporters.
“That won’t happen until June, and we hope the current trajectory continues until June – one eye on these interesting variants,” Cuomo said of summer camps. “But they can plan to reopen.”
The governor has gradually begun to lift more restrictions on businesses in recent weeks as the state markets more doses of Covid-19 vaccines and cases continue to decline after a post-holiday wave.
The state reports a weekly average of 7,949 Covid cases per day, down more than 8% from a week ago and the lowest rate since early December, according to a CNBC analysis of data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
Last week, Cuomo said that major stadiums and arenas in New York City will reopen in late February with the necessary preliminary testing, a strategy that the state wants to “lead the way.” Over the weekend, New York City restaurants were allowed to reopen their dining areas indoors at a 25% capacity.
However, new and highly contagious Covid-19 variants could reverse New York’s progress or hinder planned reopenings. The governor said the state has now identified 82 Covid-19 cases with the variant first identified in the UK in December, known as B.1.1.7., With an additional 12 cases since Saturday. He said most of those new cases were found in the New York City area.
Federal health officials have repeatedly asked Americans to remain wary of the highly contagious variants first found in the UK, South Africa and Brazil.
So far, the US has identified at least 1,277 Covid-19 cases with the B.1.1.7 variant first found in the UK, 19 of the B.1.351 variant found in South Africa and 3 cases of the P.1 variant found in Brazil, according to recent data from the CDC.
“I think we should assume that the next wave of case growth, as far as we have it, will be with B.1.1.7, and that’s something I think everyone should be even more careful about,” Andy Slavitt, a senior White House adviser Covid-19, told MSNBC Monday.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Wednesday that nationwide Covid-19 cases have now declined for five consecutive weeks and new hospital admissions have declined similarly since the beginning of January.
The spread of coronavirus variants that are more transmissible “could jeopardize the progress we’ve made over the past month if we let our guard down,” Walensky said at a press conference of the White House Covid-19 response team.