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Museums in New York City can finally open starting August 24, according to Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Cuomo tweeted the news on Friday morning, giving a few rules museums must follow if they want to reopen:
Museums and cultural institutions can open in NYC starting on August 24.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) August 14, 2020
25% occupancy. Timed ticketing required. Pre-set staggered entry.
Face coverings enforced and controlled traffic flow.
This is big news considering that Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio agreed to remove museums from the state's reopening plan under Phase 4 last month. Previously, Phase 4 had allowed low-risk indoor arts and entertainment—museums, historical sites, aquariums—to reopen.
Museums like the Museum Of The City Of New York and Fotografiska had to pull their plans to reopen at the end of July because of this. (The Metropolitan Museum of Art had already been planning to open at the end of this month.)
Back then, Cuomo said the city and the state would work together to determine when they'd be ready to reopen indoor arts and entertainment.
"We don't have anything else to do; there's nothing else to phase except in New York City—the cultural institutions and malls in New York City," Cuomo said then. "For that, we're going to watch the data."
Statewide, of the 85,455 tests reported on Thursday, 727 were positive (0.85% of total) and total hospitalizations fell to 554, according to the governor.
Of the 423,440 total individuals who tested positive for the virus in New York, there were 438 new cases in NYC on Thursday.
So now that museums have the all-clear (with safety protocol requirements), expect more of them to announce reopening dates!
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