NEW YORK, Mar 21 (APP): New York’s iconic Times Square that sees nearly 330,000 people pass through it each day was virtually empty Friday after the city that never sleeps was placed under lockdown in a bid to slow the spread of coronavirus.
New Yorkers, like many Americans across the country, have been told to hunker down in their homes and avoid large crowds and mass gatherings as much as possible as the number of confirmed cases in the United States surged past 14,000 people, with over 200 dead. Globally, there are more than 210,000 confirmed cases and more than 9,000 deaths.
Under orders from city officials, businesses were shuttered. Restaurants, gyms, libraries, cinemas and Broadway theaters as well as houses of worship were closed down, turning New York city into a virtual ghost town.
New York’s traditional St. Patrick’s Day Parade was also postponed for the first time in its 258-year history.
The most famous tourist attractions in Manhattan showed a relatively quiet scene with only a handful of people walking under Times Square’s bright lights.
The Times Square is one of the most visited tourist attractions in the world and is usually teeming with visitors and local commuters. On a busy day, the square can see as many as 450,000 people.
As officials take steps to limit the spread of the disease – including bans on gatherings of more than 50 people – they are contending with the prospects of an economic slowdown the likes of which America’s largest city has never seen.
Most government and private companies’ employees have been asked to work from their homes and step outside only to go to grocery stores and pharmacies.
If non-essential employees can’t do their job from home, they’ll be out of work entirely. The state has encouraged affected New Yorkers to apply for unemployment benefits.
Restaurant sales are expected to drop by 80%; property and retail sales by 20%, while hotel occupancy rates plunge to 20%, according to forecasts by New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer. And that was before the mayor said he was considering curfews and orders to shelter in place.
The coronavirus health crisis is expected to push the U.S. into a recession, with record stock losses and unemployment rates spiking. New York has become the epicenter for COVID-19, which has sickened more than 14,000 Americans and killed at least 205. And the worst, perhaps, is yet to come.
Millions of people in the US, which does not guarantee sick leave, remained extremely worried. Congress is now debating a bill that would grant two weeks of paid time off for those affected by the outbreak, but many economists say much more needs to be done to avert an economic crisis.
Meanwhile, analysts at IHS Markit said the US economy will shrink 0.2% in 2020. But such outlooks are updated frequently. Already others are predicting worse.
“This is hopefully a temporary situation but we need bold action,” Comptroller Stringer said.
“New York’s economy impacts not just us but the national and international economy… It’s in everybody’s interest to watch what’s happening here.”
