May 5, 2021
- Our safe and careful economic recovery and reopening continues. Beginning May 19, large-scale outdoor event venues will welcome more people and only be limited by the capacity necessary to comply with the CDC social distancing rules. This applies to outdoor music concerts, live entertainment, baseball games, horse races and more. Additionally, fully vaccinated attendees at these events may be seated at full capacity in assigned sections—providing another incentive for New Yorkers to get vaccinated. And in great news, the New York Yankees and the New York Mets, along with the State Department of Health, are teaming up to offer the COVID vaccine at their stadiums for fans at games. There's another perk, too: If you're going to a Yankees or Mets game and get vaccinated while there, you'll get a free ticket to a future game. This announcement is good for baseball fans—and good for public health.
Photo of the Day: A woman walks by shuttered Broadway theaters. The curtains will be raised again in September.
(Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images)
Here's what else you need to know tonight:
1. The show will go on! Broadway theaters are ready to reopen at 100% capacity beginning September 14, and tickets will go on sale starting tomorrow. Broadway is a major part of our state's identity and our economy, so we're glad the curtain will rise again.
2. New York has extended legislation that provides critical support to homeowners and business owners experiencing hardship due to the pandemic. The COVID-19 Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2020 and the COVID-19 Emergency Protect Our Small Businesses Act will be extended until August 31. This means that current protections prohibiting residential and commercial evictions, foreclosure proceedings, credit discrimination and negative credit reporting related to the COVID-19 pandemic, will continue as the State marches on the road to recovery.
3. COVID hospitalizations dropped to 2,458, the lowest since November 21. Of the 165,597 tests reported yesterday, 2,463, or 1.49 percent, were positive. The 7-day average percent positivity was 1.71 percent, the lowest since November 4. There were 610 patients in ICU yesterday, down five from the previous day. Of them, 379 are intubated. Sadly, we lost 31 New Yorkers to the virus.
4. As of 11am this morning, 58.8 percent of adult New Yorkers have completed at least one vaccine dose. Over the past 24 hours, 189,760 total doses have been administered. To date, New York administered 16,071,788 total doses with 45.6 percent of adult New Yorkers completing their vaccine series. See additional data on the State's Vaccine Tracker.
Tonight's "Deep Breath Moment": One of the rarest butterflies in the world is making an unexpected comeback thanks to ecologically conscious farming. The Duke of Burgundy butterfly—a small butterfly with gold and brown wings—was Britain's rarest butterfly only a decade ago. But its population has surged by 25 percent. Ecologists believe this is because of a few major farms that have committed to devoting at least 10 percent of their land to wildlife, under a government-supported program. This in turn has improved the entire ecosystem and likely saved the Duke of Burgundy butterfly from the brink of extinction.
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