Broadway cancels ALL shows until Labor Day

Broadway has canceled all shows until Labor Day, September 6, and does not know when audiences will be able to come back again. 

The theater district was one of the first to close at the height of the pandemic because it draws large crowds into small spaces.

There were no realistic hopes of it reopening soon, but Gov. Cuomo’s reopening plan – which pushes it into the final category of businesses that will be allowed to resume –  delayed it further. 

In an announcement on Tuesday, Charlotte St. Martin, the Broadway League’s President said: ‘As we’ve been put in phase four of the governor’s plan, we felt that Sept. 6 was a reasonable distance of time for refunds and exchanges, while we fully understand that we may not be back at that time.  

‘Broadway will be back when the governor tells us it’s safe to be back — we’re working closely with his office and with experts to know when that will be.’ 

Entertainment will be among the last businesses to reopen under Cuomo’s reopening plan which could take up to two months once it begins. 

The deserted streets of Broadway on Monday, May 11. The famous theater district announced on Tuesday that all shows until September 6 would be canceled 

A police officer on a horse patrols the deserted streets of Broadway on Monday

A police officer on a horse patrols the deserted streets of Broadway on Monday

In New York City, the process is not likely to begin until June, meaning it could be August before it is complete.

In New York City, there have been nearly 15,000 deaths and 183,000 cases of the virus 

Data collated by the state government says that New York City currently only meets four of the seven requirements, by Cuomo’s standards.  

Crucially, it says that the city has not yet hit the goal of reducing new daily hospitalizations to below two people for every 100,000. In New York City, that number is 168. 

But according to data compiled by the city health department, that target was reached on May 7.  

Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday that only 55 people had been admitted to hospitals on Saturday with suspected COVID-19 cases, and that not all were confirmed. 

The city still does not have enough ICU and hospital beds free, and it also does not yet have enough contact tracers. 

Of the 2,250 that are needed, de Blasio said on Tuesday that only 525 had been hired and they are currently in training. He said the city has received more than 7,000 applications for the roles and that they were going through them ‘rapidly’. 

To get the jobs – which pay between $57,000 and $65,000 – applicants must have a background in healthcare. Their job will be to phone the contacts of people who test positive and tell them that they may have come into contact with the virus. 

Only three regions of New York are ready to open on Friday. The others have not yet met all of Cuomo's requirements

Only three regions of New York are ready to open on Friday. The others have not yet met all of Cuomo’s requirements 

Runners on the West Side Highway walkway on Tuesday, May 12. The city will remain closed until it has met reopening requirements

Runners on the West Side Highway walkway on Tuesday, May 12. The city will remain closed until it has met reopening requirements 

Cuomo said on Tuesday that the city was expected to meet its target of hiring 2,250 by May 15 despite the current shortfall.  

The first phase of the reopening is to allow manufacturing and construction jobs back to work and to reopen retail on a curbside basis. 

Then, professional services will be able to return to offices but only if they submit plans that prove how they will enforce social distancing. 

It will then be down to local authorities to enforce the rules, Cuomo said. 

On Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has been even more cautious than Cuomo since the beginning of the pandemic and who called for a shutdown before it was implemented, said New York City would remain closed until June unless ‘something miraculous happened’. 

Once each region reopens, it will have a ‘control room’ to monitor a potential second outbreak. 

Cuomo uses the analogy of a valve to explain how a region should gradually reopen by incrementally loosening it and watching the infection rate to see how it is affected. 

If the infection rate goes beyond 1.1, it means another outbreak is happening.  

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk