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A new order, issued on Thursday, April 9 and lasting at least until Wednesday, April 29, states that parks and other public spaces - which had been open since the outbreak began - where people could gather are being closed off to help practice social distancing protocols.
Some parks and other public open spaces will remain open to provide a place for New Yorkers to get out of the house and get some fresh air; however, golf courses, playgrounds, boat launches, and marinas have all been deemed non-essential by Empire State Development.
Marinas are no longer viable for recreational use but may stay open to support the government or essential businesses.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo that New York may be "flattening the curve" in much of the state, but only because of the drastic measures that were taken to prevent New Yorkers from congregating.
"This is a direct correlation to our actions. If we stop (social distancing), we’re going to see those numbers go up,” he said. “The hospitalization rate suggests that things are going down and we’re flattening the curve, as you can see the hospitalizations are the lowest this month.
“Statisticians said that ‘we don’t know how effective it would be to close things down and social distance,’ because we’ve never done it before,” he said. “That’s the opportunity to flatten the curve, but you’ve got to get people to comply with the measures and we’ve never seen anything before like this in the country. They didn’t know if we could get them to comply."
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