18K NYC Coronavirus Inspections Led To 288 Summonses: Mayor

NEW YORK CITY — It wouldn’t be a Thursday — or any day of the week — without Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio taking direct and indirect shots at each other.

Hizzoner opened the day by predicting the city will learn Sunday if and when new localized coronavirus lockdowns will end, prompting Cuomo to tartly point out it’s the state’s sole decision.

De Blasio also touted the city’s enforcement efforts in newly-instated color-coded cluster zones — the perceived lack of which is particular pet peeve of Cuomo’s.

City inspectors looked at 1,700 sites Wednesday and issued 25 summonses, de Blasio said. They’ve looked at 18,000 sites in the past two weeks overall, he said, and handed out 288 summonses for coronavirus-related violations.

“So, there's a serious, serious effort here,” he said.

Left unsaid at that point was Cuomo’s threat to pull funding from jurisdictions he considered lax on enforcement.

De Blasio, when quizzed by reporters about it, brushed it off as “bluster” and “wordplay.”

“I understand bluster when I see it, but here we have a job to do, the job is to protect New Yorkers,” he said. “That's what I'm focused on every day. And I am deeply concerned that there is a threat here of a second wave. My job is to stop that second wave, not to play games, not to focus on threats, but the threat we should be worried about is the threat of a second wave of the coronavirus in New York City.”

Cuomo, for his part, again lambasted the city for not enforcing rules going back to March. He said recent protests in Orthodox Jewish communities over “red zone” restrictions stem from the shock of enforcement happening for the first time.

“That’s why they think this is abrupt,” he said. “What is abrupt is they were not complying with any rules.”