On Friday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that New York City will begin its process of reopening on June 8th, after nearly three months of a stay-at-home order in place due to COVID-19. 

This news comes just hours after NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said at his own coronavirus briefing that he was unable to give a more specific date for when reopening would begin, aside from the first two weeks of June. 

Phase one will allow about 400,000 people in the Big Apple who work in construction, wholesale, manufacturing, and curbside retail industries to return to work on June 8th, announced Cuomo. He added that while the city is reopening, it will look much different than before the pandemic began. 

“It is reopening to a new normal. It’s a safer normal. Reopening doesn’t mean going back to the past,” Cuomo said in the press conference. He continued, “People will be wearing masks. It’s just a new way of interacting, which we have to do.” He also added that it was up to people to decide how they want to travel to work, whether it be the MTA or driving– regardless, the MTA chairman assures us: “Our transit and bus system is cleaner and safer than it has been in history, as we clean and disinfect around the clock.”

Mayor de Blasio, whose remote connection to the video cut out, briefly added that the city will give out 2 million free face masks to NYC residents returning to work June 8th. 

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New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio announced, this week, that NYC schools would be closed for the remainder of the academic year, an announcement that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo contradicts.

Drew Angerer / Getty Images

“Having to tell you that we cannot bring our schools back for the remainder of this school year is painful, but I can also tell you it is the right thing to do,” De Blasio said in a press conference, Saturday.

Just hours later, Cuomo expressed a different idea: “There has been no decision on schools,” Cuomo said, calling De Blasio’s comments mere “opinion.” “He didn’t close them, and he can’t open them,” he continued in a press conference upstate.

Saturday evening, De Blasio appeared on MSNBC to clarify the situation: “I’ll always work with the state of New York, I’ll always work with the governor,” De Blasio said, before explaining that his responsibility is to the students, not another elected official. “I have to do what I think is right to stop the coronavirus from holding the city in its grip to make sure we get out of this horrible moment in our city’s history and move forward.”

Cuomo has yet to respond to De Blasio’s latest comments.

[Via]