Police officers break up a fight during the coronavirus pandemic in Washington Square Park in New York. Photo / AP
Police officers break up a fight during the coronavirus pandemic in Washington Square Park in New York. Photo / AP
New York Governor Cuomo extended the stay home orders for New York City residents until June 13 as five other regions are slated to reopen on Friday.
Cuomo made the announcement in an executive order on Thursday after his daily press briefing, which stated that his PAUSE measures would continue there amid the coronavirus crisis, the US Sun reports.
The statewide shutdown was expected to expire today but the five boroughs and four other regions haven't met the seven criteria needed to reopen on May 15 as planned.
"Both travel-related cases and community contact transmission of COVID-19 have been documented in New York State and are expected to continue," the governor's order read.
"All enforcement mechanisms by state or local governments shall continue to be in full force and effect until June 13, 2020, unless later extended or amended by a future Executive Order."
New York City will remain on lockdown for at least another month. Photo / AP
Earlier this week, New York Mayor De Blasio predicted that residents of Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island, Manhattan, and Brooklyn may have to wait until June "unless something miraculous happens."
The densely populated City still needs to surge its hospital bed and ICU capacity and significantly reduce the number of people hospitalised every day.
On Wednesday, there were 157 COVID-related fatalities statewide upping the death toll to 22,170 in New York, with 343,051 total cases.
Police officers break up a fight during the coronavirus pandemic in Washington Square Park in New York. Photo / AP
While Cuomo urged people to remain cautious, demonstrators attended a "Re-Open New York" Rally in Commack, Long Island on Thursday.
News12 journalist Kevin Vessey was heckled by protesters decrying the lockdown order and holding signs with slogans like "Hang Fauci."
A Twitter video showed demonstrators without masks defying CDC guidelines about social distancing and wearing no masks.
I'll probably never forget what happened today. I was insulted. I was berated. I was practically chased by people who refused to wear masks in the middle of a pandemic. All the while, I was there to tell THEIR story. Here's the finished product. pic.twitter.com/HV2Hrcs7gi
The New York Police Department announced on Friday it would step back from ticketing people for gathering in small clusters or for failing to wear a mask, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday.
The police will continue to disperse large gatherings that are most likely to present a risk of spreading the coronavirus, de Blasio said.
"But we're not going to have the NYPD focus on, you know, two people together or three people together," he said.
"We're going to focus on when it starts to be more than a handful of people. And we're not going to be having the NYPD enforcing on face coverings."
Videos that have circulated on social media in recent days have shown officers punching a man in the head as he lay pinned to a sidewalk and arresting a young mother in a confrontation over a face covering in a subway station.
De Blasio has said that most New Yorkers are following guidelines banning gatherings and requiring face coverings in public.
