LA, NYC Mayors Predict No Live Events Till 2021

Following comments made this past weekend by coronavirus expert Zeke Emmanuel in a new New York Times discussion for the music industry, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio have echoed Emmanuel’s outlook: live events likely won’t resume until 2021.

Garcetti said on CNN and Billboard on April 15 that live events like sports games and concerts might not resume until 2021 as the United States is doing its best to mitigate the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s difficult to imagine us getting together in the thousands anytime soon, so I think we should be prepared for that this year,” Garcetti told CNN anchor and The Situation Room host Wolf Blitzer.

De Blasio also called mass gatherings like live events “one of the last things that we bring back online.”

“I’ve got to see in my city real steady progress, even to start to think about relaxing some of those social distancing standards even a little bit,” according to De Blasio.

“I want to get people back to work, of course. I want to get kids back to school. But I think it will take months to go through that whole sequence. The last thing I want to do is gather 10,000, 20,000, 50,000 people in one place, that’s like the exact opposite of social distancing,” he added.

At the same time, President Trump said yesterday the coronavirus pandemic has peaked, and some states may reopen before May 1.

“While we must remain vigilant, it is clear that our strategy is working, and very strongly working. New cases are declining throughout the New York metropolitan area. Cases in Detroit and metro Denver areas are flat. Washington, DC, Baltimore, St. Louis is showing progress. New cases in New Orleans are declining. The data suggests that nationwide we have passed the peak on new cases,” Trump said during the daily briefing of the Coronavirus Task Force in the Rose Garden.

“These developments have put us in a strong position to finalize guidelines for states opening the country, which we will be announcing tomorrow. We will have a news conference tomorrow during the afternoon,” he said.

Trump said Monday he had total authority to decide when states would reopen, not individual governors. The president’s announcement came as confirmed cases in the US rose to more than 605,000 and the death toll topped 27,000.

via Music Times | Photo via Rukes.com