The first celebration New York City will hold when the city can reopen after the coronavirus pandemic will honor health care professionals and first responders, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio Bill de BlasioNew York to honor Ginsburg with statue in Brooklyn The Hill's Morning Report - Sponsored by The Air Line Pilots Association - White House moves closer to Pelosi on virus relief bill New York again pushes back in-person classes MORE said Tuesday.

“I want to guarantee you one thing, that when that day comes that I can restart the vibrant beautiful life of this city again, the first thing we will do is have a ticker tape parade down the Canyon of Heroes for our health care workers and our first responders,” de Blasio said at a briefing.

“The first thing we will do before we think about anything else is we will take the time as only New York City can do to throw the biggest, best parade to honor these heroes,” he added.

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De Blasio said the parade will “mark the beginning of our renaissance.”

I can’t tell you when we’ll be able to host cultural events and parades again. But I can tell you WHO our first parade will be for:



When the time is right, New York City will honor our health care workers and first responders with a ticker tape parade up the Canyon of Heroes. — Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) April 21, 2020

He didn’t give a timeline for when the parade, or other cultural events, may be able to take place. The city canceled all nonessential events through at least June.

New York has been hit the hardest by the coronavirus pandemic, with more than 250,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases across the state, most within New York City.