This archive report was first published on 18 June 2020.
On June 18, 2020, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed that the city would ease more restrictions on Monday, allowing outdoor dining, in-store shopping, and office work to resume with limits.
As many as 300,000 workers are expected to get back to work, with restaurants allowed to place seating on curbs and sidewalks adjacent to their restaurants, even if they had never had seating before.
Mayor de Blasio predicted that the expanded outdoor dining plan would save 5,000 of the city's restaurants and 45,000 jobs.
However, the city's reopening comes as new surges of the virus have been reported in states like Florida, Arizona, and Texas, which reopened more quickly.
Despite concerns, Mayor de Blasio said that city and state officials had been encouraged by the trend line of test results and hospitalizations, which have stayed flat in recent weeks.
The city's playgrounds, which have been shut since March, will also reopen on Monday, but team sports will not be permitted in city parks.
The New York City panel that sets rents for rent-regulated apartments froze those rents for a year, delivering a slight reprieve to tenants struggling in the worst economy in decades.
