NYC closed Broadway for at least a month
Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo has announced a state ban on most major public gatherings of more than 500 people while New York works to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The move will close Broadway and most of New York City’s concert halls, as well as a host of other businesses, including meeting rooms, museums, sports games, and other venues.
Broadway theaters will close at 5 p.m. ET today, while at other venues and gatherings, the ban will take place on Friday at 5 p.m. ET. For locations with a maximum occupancy of 500 people or less, the state will cut its legal capacity by half in an effort to reduce large groups of people who gather in one place.
We are taking new actions to reduce the density of people across the state.
As of Friday at 5:00 PM, gatherings of 500 people or more are not permitted in NYS.
In addition, for facilities with an occupancy of 500 or less, we will decrease the legal authority by 50%.
– Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) March 12, 2020
There will be ‘a series of sanctions’ for companies that do not comply with the ban, including fines and possible shutdowns for companies that do not comply. Governor Cuomo says from now on that the ban will apply “in the near future until things change”. “As soon as we can get back to normal, we’ll go back to normal,” he added, noting that “this will only get worse before it gets better.”
The ban is specifically for ‘merged spaces’ with an occupancy of 500 people or more, meaning places with more divided spaces – such as office buildings or movie theaters – are not affected by the limits.
Governor Cuomo’s announcement doesn’t include things like New York City’s subway and bus connections, New York’s public school system, hospitals or nursing homes, all of which will remain open for the time being.
In particular, the closure of Broadway theaters will have a huge negative economic impact on the city, with the shows representing some of New York City’s biggest tourist attractions and a gross of nearly $ 2 billion annually. (Tourists are estimated to make up nearly two-thirds of the Broadway audience.) The Broadway League – the national trade association for the Broadway industry – has said theaters will be closed until April 12, per The New York Times.
During the announcement of the ban, Governor Cuomo provided updated figures for the New York state outbreak, which now has 328 cases of the corona virus, 112 of which were discovered overnight. There have been more than 130,000 confirmed cases worldwide more than 4,700 killed of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.