The mayor’s office is mulling over canceling public events until June.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Friday that all parades, concerts, rallies and other large gatherings are canceled for May.
The mayor’s office will not be issuing any permits during the month of may for non-essential events. Permits for medical sites and anything food-related, such as farmers’ markets, will still be given.
On Thursday, the mayor announced during his daily coronavirus press conference that all public pools would be closed through the summer and that social distancing orders would most likely be placed on public beaches. The mayor also suspended over 1,000 summer camp slots on Thursday.
“June is when we really start to feel the summer and even want those big wonderful events more,” said de Blasio during Friday’s coronavirus briefing. “But we got a lot to get done to be safe for June and we are far from out of the woods yet.”
The mayor said he would update the city soon on the status of June events, like NYC’s WorldPride, noting the “high bar” the city has set for deeming whether a public gathering is safe.
“Some of these events, they are beautiful events but they are really mass gatherings.” said de Blasio. Over 5 million people attended WorldPride last year. “I can’t see it, but I really want to talk to event organizers…I want to see what they are feeling.”
