NYC says goodbye to summer as Mayor de Blasio closes public pools and more

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says that public swimming pools are closed for the summer — and beaches may soon be next.

What are the details?

In a Thursday news conference, de Blasio said that summer in the city will not be business as usual.

"Imagine Coney Island in the summer," he said during the briefing. "Hundreds of thousands of people packed tightly together, I don't see that happening anytime soon."

He went on to advise New Yorkers to "lower expectations" for the upcoming summer months.

"If we bring out lifeguards, and it's a situation where people think it's safe to go to the beach, and it's safe to start resuming normalcy, it's going to start endangering people," the mayor added. "So, no, right now, we do not have a plan to open the beaches, just like we don't have a plan to open the pools."

De Blasio said that the last thing he wants is to "create a situation where people start gathering."

"If things evolve, we'll assess our options going forward," he reasoned.

According to Business Insider, a budget proposed by the mayor's office says that closing the more than 50 outdoor pools will save the city about $12 million.

What else?

On Thursday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) extended the state's stay-at-home order another 30 days to May 15.

All schools and nonessential businesses will continue to remain closed.

"We must stay the course," Cuomo said during a briefing from Albany.

The state initially planned to reopen around April 30.

"New York Pause has worked," the governor added during the news briefing. "We're not there yet."

Cuomo also added that his new executive order demanding all New Yorkers wear face coverings in public is set to go into effect on Friday.

At the time of this writing, researchers at Johns Hopkins University estimates at least 214,832 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in New York, and at least 14,636 people have died because of the virus.