NEW YORK - Mayor Bill de Blasio says while major public events in the city have been canceled or postponed due to the coronavirus in May and June, fireworks on the Fourth of July will still go on with some modifications.

Speaking from City Hall, the mayor says he has been in contact with Macy's CEO to come up with a safe and different celebration this summer.

“Then the question came yesterday about the Fourth of July. And I thought, well, wait a minute. We have to mark the Fourth of July,” de Blasio said.


The mayor did not go into detail of what exactly the modified celebration would look like. De Blasio did, however, receive some pushback on social media about moving forward with the celebration.
 

 

This comes a day after the mayor announced the city will hold a ticker-tape parade for all health care workers and first responders once the city is past the coronavirus crisis. He said it will be the greatest ticker-tape parade the city has ever seen.

On the numbers front, citywide, as of 6 p.m. Tuesday, there were 138,435 confirmed cases of COVID-19, an estimated 35,920 hospitalizations, and 14,996 deaths (9,944 confirmed and 5,052 probable), an increase of 569 deaths (382 confirmed and 187 probable) 24 hours earlier.

The borough-by-borough breakdown of confirmed cases, with some fluctuation in the numbers:

  • Queens: 42,637 confirmed cases
  • Brooklyn: 36,699
  • The Bronx: 31,130
  • Manhattan: 17,495
  • Staten Island: 10,405

New York state has reported, as of midnight Tuesday, 257,216 confirmed coronavirus cases and a total of 15,302 deaths (the state is not currently including probable coronavirus fatalities in its count).

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said 474 people died of coronavirus in New York state between midnight Monday and midnight Tuesday, noting the figure is declining "gently."

De Blasio said there was a slight uptick in the number of admitted patients to city hospitals - 252, up from 204 on April 19.

The mayor says ICU patient numbers are down to 821 from 857 in the same time period.

There's also been a slight dip in the number of people testing positive for coronavirus.

The mayor also spent a large amount of time outlining the city's plan to expand testing which he says will be the key to "beat back this disease."

De Blasio says widespread collection sites will minimize the burden on hospitals and the health care system as a whole.

The city's "Test and Trace" efforts will involve call centers, patient evaluations, contact tracing and investigation and data management and analysis.

"The tracing is literally hunting down every individual who contracts this disease and interviewing them about the people they were in contact with,” de Blasio said.

The mayor says the goal is to treat, isolate and maintain support for any New Yorker who tests positive.

That includes providing housing, transportation, food, pharmacy and laundry services as well as tele-medicine follow ups.

The mayor also announced six new testing sites for NYCHA residents and nearby residents with risk factors that will open this Friday.

They include Cumberland Health Center in Crown Heights, Belvis Health Center in Mott Haven, Gouverneur Health Center on the Lower East Side

Three additional sites - Jonathan Williams Houses in Williamsburg, Woodside Houses in Woodside and the St. Nicholas Houses in Harlem - will open next week.