Some Updates from New York City with Irene

05/27/2020

Those lucky enough to live near Central Park can safely walk, cycle, run or take a mat and sunbathe in the beautiful park. The park rangers are located almost everywhere, they distribute free masks and check that there are no gatherings.

So living near a park helps a lot, among many other parks in New York, Domino Park in Brooklyn has painted circles on the grass to ensure proper social distancing!

Roads closed to traffic for New Yorkers

You might ask yourselves -- and for those who don't have a park nearby? With this Memorial Day Weekend, another 45 miles (72 km) of roads in Manhattan remain closed to traffic allowing New Yorkers to walk in peace respecting the social distance.

Some European Union Countries are already reopening their borders to all citizens of the Schengen area (see Italy for example) without exception and without the need for quarantine from June 3rd, but departures from and to the US for tourism are still prohibited.

There are few European Airline Companies that are still operating weekly flights from EU airports to JFK -- such as Alitalia and KLM but you must be an American citizen or resident to be allowed to enter the United States territory.

These flights are truly meant to facilitate citizens to return to their respective countries if they were forced to stay abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic. For tourism, the American borders are still closed to international flights and there is no future date yet selected to reopen the borders.

At the moment, citizens from these countries have been banned from coming into the United States -- the People's Republic of China (excluding the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macao), the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Schengen Area, the United Kingdom (excluding the territories of overseas (outside Europe) and the Republic of Ireland. Brazil was added yesterday.

Around New York with Irene