New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday that no swimming will permitted at New York beaches and warned that any beachgoer who attempts to swim will “be taken right out of the water.”
“Anyone tries to get in the water, they’ll be taken right out of the water,” he told reporters.
“There’s a whole lot of things that will not be allowed at any beach in the state, but you know we’re holding out the hope that at some point we could open up, and we’re training the lifeguards, and we’ll be ready,” de Blasio told reporters. “No swimming, no sports, no gatherings, no parties. Just common sense, observe social distancing. If you walk on the beach, do it for a limited period of time, get back home like everybody else.”
de Blasio also said Monday that he has ordered work crews to begin installing fences at city beaches to cut off access to city beaches if necessary.
“People will start to see the initial work, it’s going to begin today, to put the fencing in today. I don’t want to activate it, I don’t want to implement it unless we need to, but we have to have it ready,” de Blasio said. “So the fencing will be in position and ready, but it won’t be put up initially. If it did have to be put up it would simply cut off all the entry points to the beaches. I don’t want to do that. It’s not something I want to see happen, but this is about health and safety. Everything is about health and safety first.”
New York City has had 193,000 COVID cases and 15,786 deaths as of Monday.
