New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. | AP Photo NYC could ease coronavirus restrictions in late May, but hampered by lack of testing

New York City could begin to ease some coronavirus restrictions in late May or June — but it will require widespread testing of residents for the virus, which the city does not yet have the ability to do.

Even as the death toll continues to surge — reaching 5,150 on Thursday, according to state data, with more than 84,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 — the city has begun to plan for a gradual return to normalcy down the road, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.


“People have been following the rules, and that’s why we’re starting to see some improvement. And we are far from out of the woods,” de Blasio said, citing hopeful signs like a stabilization in hospitalizations. “If we really work hard, we have a chance of seeing change in May or June.”

The de Blasio administration has in recent weeks downplayed the importance of testing for the virus, telling New Yorkers not to get tested unless they’re sick enough to be hospitalized and shutting down its own walk-up testing sites at public hospitals.

But the mayor said Thursday widespread testing would be key to moving to the next phase of the outbreak, where transmission is low and some restrictions can be eased. Yet the city is far short of the test capacity it will need, and has no concrete plan for a large-scale expansion.

“We would need more testing. And we don’t have it yet,” de Blasio said, adding the federal government still has not sent an adequate supply of test kits.

“If we could get widespread testing, it would start to change the entire strategy,” de Blasio said. “We have had to, from Day One, ration testing in a way none of us wanted to do.”

He said he hoped the feds would come through by late May or June.

To begin easing restrictions, the city will have to see consistent improvement for two consecutive weeks in three data points: the number of people testing positive for the disease, admissions to hospitals, and admissions to intensive care units. The city will begin publishing those statistics on Monday.

“We will not jump the gun. Unless we have sustained hard evidence that things are getting better, we will not relax any of the tough standards,” de Blasio said.

“We should be very worried about resurgence,” he added. “The last thing we can afford is to let down our guard and let this disease back in the door and then see the numbers spike up.”

To reduce infections, the city is also looking to provide hotel rooms where sick residents can isolate themselves to avoid infecting their family members by sheltering at home. De Blasio said that would happen “over time,” but did not provide a timeline.

The city has rented 10,000 hotel rooms to turn into hospital rooms and hopes to offer them up for people in quarantine as the need for treatment eases.

All New Yorkers have been ordered to stay home whenever possible, and bars, restaurants and all nonessential businesses are closed. Theaters, museums and cultural venues are shuttered, gatherings of any size are banned and people are ordered to stay six feet away from each other.

Some of those rules will stay in place for months even if others begin to loosen in May or June, de Blasio said. The city will urge New Yorkers to continue working from home for as long as possible. A decision is expected in the next few days on whether to cancel the rest of the school year, which would normally go through late June.

“We don’t know exactly what the new level of normal will be,” said Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot.