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NYC, LA Ramp Up Virus-Fighting Measures With Only To-Go Orders

New York City Schools to Close This Week, Cuomo Announces

(Bloomberg) -- New York City and Los Angeles are taking major steps to curb social interaction to fight the spread of the coronavirus.

The two biggest U.S. cities will limit restaurants to take out and delivery orders. New York City will also shut down nightclubs, movie theaters, small theater houses, concert venues and allow bars to only offer take out and deliveries -- starting Tuesday at 9 a.m., local time. Los Angeles will close bars and nightclubs, as well as movie theaters, performance venues and gyms by the end of Sunday.

“This is not a decision I make lightly,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement Sunday about the city. “These places are part of the heart and soul of our city. But our city is facing an unprecedented threat, and we must respond with a wartime mentality.”

The announcements came after New York city announced school closures starting Monday and officials would attempt to reopen the 1.1 million student system on April 20, though acknowledged that classes might be done for the academic year. Teachers, who will be paid during the closure, will be quickly retrained to work with pupils through remote education. Los Angeles had announced school closures earlier in the past week.

The latest restrictions extend New York City’s move earlier in the week to declare an emergency in the nation’s largest city as it reported its first death from the global pandemic. Offices and trading floors were left half-empty, where those present were greeted by vacant desks and the smell of hand sanitizer. Broadway theaters went dark and streets and train stations were sparsely populated.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti also encouraged houses of worship to close, and announced measures including a moratorium on evictions for renters.

“This is an absolutely critical moment in our city’s history,” he said in a Facebook broadcast, citing past disasters like wild fires and earthquakes. “Our city is not shutting down. We’re not planning to do so, and we never will.”

--With assistance from Elise Young.

To contact the reporter on this story: Henry Goldman in New York at hgoldman@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Crayton Harrison at tharrison5@bloomberg.net, Linus Chua, Tomoko Yamazaki

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