New York City, the Covid-19 epicentre of US, to remain closed till June

New Delhi: New York City, the American city, which got worst affected by the Coronavirus and accounted for many casualties, is likely to remain closed till June, its Mayor Bill de Blasio has reportedly said.

New York has been under lockdown since March to prevent the spread of novel Coronavirus.

“On the reopening, we’re clearly not ready yet. So I think it’s fair to say that June is when we are potentially going to be able to make some real changes, if we can continue our progress,” Mayor Blasio said at his daily press briefing.

Nearly 15,000 deaths in New York City alone

However, three regions of New York state are set to open by May 15 because of recent decline in hospitalizations, ICU admissions and fatalities due to virus. But, much will depend on the progress in next few days.

New York state has 3,37,055 confirmed coronavirus cases with more than 26,000 people dying from the disease. New York City alone has registered 1,83,662 cases and 14,928 deaths.

Strong contact tracing must before reopening economies, warns WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that countries are re-opening their economies without setting up strong contract tracing and this may result in fresh wave of attacks.

The warning came as France and Belgium emerged from lockdowns, the Netherlands sent children back to school, and a number of US states continued to lift their business restrictions.

The scourge could come back with a vengeance without widespread testing and tracing of infected people’s contacts, it warned.