Lawmakers call for all of NYC to be declared COVID 'orange zone'

NEW YORK - As coronavirus cases in New York City continue to rise, a group of local and state lawmakers is now calling for the entire city to be declared a COVID-19 "orange zone," with a pause put on indoor dining, the closure of gyms, and other restrictions.

City Councilman Mark Levine, Councilwoman Carlina Rivera, state Sen. Gustavo Rivera, and Assemblyman Richard Gottfried all called for stronger restrictions in order to prevent over-crowded hospitals and needless deaths.

“New York City is facing a perilous surge in COVID-19. Average daily cases are up 62% in the past two weeks. Hospitalizations are accelerating rapidly, now at over 1,300, the highest since early June. These figures do not yet fully reflect the post-Thanksgiving increase," the officials said in a press release. "In our spring surge, healthcare workers came to New York City from around the nation to support our hospitals. This assistance will not be available to us in our current wave."

SOME NYC PUBLIC SCHOOLS REOPEN FOR STUDENTS

The lawmakers also called for the closure of non-essential office spaces, with an advisory that New Yorkers who are able should work from home.

"Targeted neighborhood measures are not sufficient at this point, because community spread is now city-wide, and because New Yorkers are highly mobile, moving frequently between neighborhoods. The color status in any single neighborhood impacts the entire city, therefore at this point the best strategy is a consistent city-wide standard of Orange status, which restricts the most risky and likely points for contracting COVID-19, while allowing for some flexibility regarding lower-risk activities," the press release said.

Under Governor Andrew Cuomo's guidelines, an area of New York City can become an orange zone if the seven-day rolling positivity rate reaches 3%. A red zone with even more restrictions is put in place when the positivity rate reaches 4%. 

As of Sunday, Mayor Bill de Blasio had tweeted that the city's seven-day positivity rate had reached 5.12%, with 2,264 new cases and 165 new hospitalizations.

New York City's schools began a phased reopening on Monday, with 3-K, Pre-K, and grades K-5 all being brought back for in-person learning. All grades of District 75 schools for special needs students will reopen on Thursday.