New York City Will Introduce 'More Restrictions' as Number of Cases Rises to 62

The goal, he said, was “balancing the need to keep as much normalcy in society as possible while reducing the gatherings that are causing concern.”

As of Thursday morning, New York City had 62 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, nine more than on Wednesday, the mayor said. More than 216 people in the state have tested positive so far.

De Blasio said he hoped to introduce measures that would reduce crowds at gatherings and audiences at events. He specifically mentioned Broadway, where producers and theater owners have taken steps to try to stay open.

“I don’t want to see Broadway go dark if we can avoid it,” the mayor said. “I want to see if we can strike some kind of balance.”

De Blasio said he did not plan to shut down the subway system or close all of the city’s public schools, but he did not provide more details on his plans, saying only that his administration planned to take steps on Thursday or Friday.

On Wednesday, Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington announced a ban on public gatherings of 250 people or more in three counties in the Seattle area, the most far-reaching restriction in a major U.S. metropolitan area to blunt the coronavirus outbreak so far.

Oregon’s governor, Kate Brown, imposed a similar restriction in her state, and San Francisco announced a ban on large events of more than 1,000 people.

The city closed some schools for the first time.

De Blasio announced the city’s first district public school closures related to the virus on Thursday morning: two schools in the Bronx that share a building.

The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology, and South Bronx Preparatory: A College Board School, are both 6-12 grade schools at 360 East 145th St. in the Bronx. The schools serve about 1,300 students combined. Nearly all of the students at both Bronx schools closed Thursday are low-income and black or Hispanic.

A student at one of the schools has a “self-confirmed” positive case of coronavirus, the mayor said in a statement.

A city official said that the child’s parent informed the city that they had tested positive for the virus, though the case is not formally logged in the state database. The city closed the schools based on the parent’s report.

The city will disinfect the school, which will be closed for at least 24 hours, and the city’s health department will investigate close contacts of the infected student who might need testing or quarantine.

“We don’t make this decision lightly, and we know the disruption and anxiety this means for students, faculty and parents,” he said.

Thursday’s closures mark a new stage in the virus’s effect on city schools. De Blasio has consistently said that he will not implement mass school closures unless the situation changes dramatically.

New York City is home to the nation’s largest public school system, with 1,800 schools and 1.1 million students, and large-scale closures would inevitably be extremely disruptive.

About 75% of the city’s students are low-income and rely on schools not only for meals but also for in-school medical clinics, guidance counselors, laundry machines and many other services.

Mass school closures would also force many working parents — including essential city personnel like public hospital employees — to stay home or scramble to arrange child care.

But as the virus spreads, de Blasio is facing more pressure from some parents to either close schools or make school optional for students. On Wednesday, Seattle closed its public school district for at least two weeks, and hundreds of thousands of students across the country are out of school or using remote learning.

Remote learning presents a challenge for city public schools, since many students do not have internet at home or live in homeless shelters.

In New Jersey, a public high school has closed to students and switched to online classes “until further notice” after a student’s sibling tested positive for the coronavirus, officials said.

Red Bank Regional High School, in Little Silver, New Jersey, has about 1,200 students from Red Bank, Shrewsbury and Little Silver. It is believed to be the first public school in New Jersey to close and switch to remote learning.

Orthodox Jewish community members in Bergen County, New Jersey, “strongly encouraged” to work from home.

Orthodox Jewish leaders in Bergen County, the most populous county in New Jersey, enacted sweeping social distancing policies in the community on Wednesday night, including the closure of synagogues and schools, restrictions on kosher restaurants and limits on funerals and mourning visitations.

The Rabbinical Council of Bergen County said in a statement that it made its decision after being told that public health officials “need our help to slow the spread of the disease before their resources are overwhelmed.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, 23 people in New Jersey had tested positive for the new coronavirus.

Ten of the cases are in Bergen County, which sits across the Hudson River from New York. Many of the New Jersey cases are linked to a cluster in New York’s Westchester County.

The rabbinical council said members of the community were “strongly encouraged” to work from home and to keep their children from socializing with their classmates, which would undermine the purpose of closing schools.

The council also instructed people not to gather for Shabbat meals and asked kosher restaurants to fill only delivery and takeout orders, instead of seating customers. Funerals will be restricted to a small group of the deceased’s family members and a minyan, or quorum needed for religious ceremonies, and the council said in-person Shiva visits should be replaced with phone calls or video chats.

“It is with a very heavy heart that we are suspending so many of the most crucial routines of our daily lives and life cycle moments,” the council said. “These measures are adopted as a reflection of our overarching commitment to the sanctity of all human life, and we pray that these will be very temporary measures.”

The St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Manhattan is postponed.

New York City’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the largest such celebration in the world, was postponed late Wednesday over concerns about the spread of the coronavirus, the first time in more than 250 years that the event will not go on as planned.

The announcement followed the cancellation of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in Chicago and Boston. On Monday, Ireland canceled all parades nationwide.

Sean Lane, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Celebration Committee’s chairman, said the group looked forward “to celebrating the 259th St. Patrick’s Day Parade with the entire City of New York at a later date.”

The parade, traditionally held on March 17, draws an estimated 150,000 marchers and 2 million spectators a year to Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. It is one of the city’s largest recurring public events.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .