NEW YORK: New York City - the epicenter of America's coronavirus outbreak - began partially reopening its shattered economy Monday following almost three months of lockdown, as the World Health Organization warned the situation was "worsening" worldwide.
The World Health Organization said Monday that the coronavirus pandemic situation i worsening around the globe, warning against complacency. "Although the situation in Europe is improving, globally it is worsening," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual news conference in Geneva.
Some 400,000 New Yorkers were allowed to return to work as retailers began offering limited in-store and curbside pickup, with construction and manufacturing also permitted to restart.
"It's good to be back," said Michael Ostergren, manager of Shakespeare and Co bookshop on Manhattan's Upper West Side, where a trickle of customers arrived shortly after the doors reopened.
"Everybody wants to be out of the house. We're just picking up where we left off in March," he added.
Phase one of New York's reopening got underway as some of Europe's hardest-hit nations lurched back to a new kind of normal, even as WHO reported a record number of new cases globally.
Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 136,000 cases had been reported in the past 24 hours, "the most in a single day so far," with the majority coming in the Americas and South Asia.
New York's bars will be allowed to open in phase three, but cinemas and museums have to wait until phase four, likely in late July and with reduced capacity. COVID-19 deaths have passed 403,000 worldwide, with over seven million infections, since the disease emerged in China last year before sweeping the globe, subjecting billions to some form of lockdown and paralyzing economies.
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