NEW YORK (AP) – The coronavirus halted New York’s July 4 celebrations this year, but some things stayed the same, such as hot dogs and fireworks.
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Competitive eater Miki Sudo eats a record 48 and a half hot dogs to win the women’s division of Nathan’s famous July 4 hot dog food contest on Saturday, July 4, 2020, in the Brooklyn district of New York. (AP Photo / John Minchillo)
Macy’s annual televised fireworks show made the Empire State Building its focal point this year, with a colorful screen that originated at the top of the Manhattan skyscraper after several days of exhibits across the city.
As for that other Independence Day show in the Big Apple, Joey Chestnut and Miki Sudo repeated as male and female champions in Nathan’s famous hot dog eating contest on Saturday.
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Competitive eater Miki Sudo takes a women’s world record of 48 and a half hot dogs to win the women’s division of Nathan’s famous July 4 hot dog food contest on Saturday, July 4, 2020, in the Brooklyn borough from New York. (AP Photo / John Minchillo)
Chestnut knocked down 75 sausages and rolls in 10 minutes and Sudo dropped 48 1/2 in a competition that took place in an undisclosed location with no in-person spectators. Both hot dog totals were world records.
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Competitive eater Miki Sudo, second right, takes a women’s world record of 48 and a half hot dogs to win the women’s division of Nathan’s famous July 4 hot dog food contest on Saturday July 4, 2020, in the Brooklyn district of New York. (AP Photo / John Minchillo)
“I’m always pushing for a record,” Chestnut said before the contest aired on an ESPN hungry for live sports. “I know that is what the fans want.”
Officials like Mayor Bill de Blasio, Senator Charles Schumer and former Mayor Mike Bloomberg gathered in Lower Manhattan early Saturday for the reopening of the 9/11 memorial plaza, which had been cordoned off since mid-March when institutions cultural closed the city. to stop the spread of the virus.
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Competitive eater Miki Sudo takes a women’s world record of 48 and a half hot dogs to win the women’s division of Nathan’s famous July 4 hot dog food contest on Saturday, July 4, 2020, in the Brooklyn borough from New York. (AP Photo / John Minchillo)
“Independence Day is a fitting occasion to reopen the September 11 Memorial,” Bloomberg, president of the September 11 Memorial and National Museum, said in a prepared statement. “By celebrating the Revolutionary Declaration issued 244 years ago, and the promise of equality for all that we are still working to fulfill, we also honor all who have paid the cost and borne the burden of maintaining American freedom.”
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Competitors separated by translucent panels eat at the women’s division of Nathan’s famous July 4 hot dog food contest during the coronavirus pandemic, Saturday, July 4, 2020, in the Brooklyn district of New York. (AP Photo / John Minchillo)
The relatives of the people who died in the attacks of September 11, 2001 were received in the plaza on Saturday afternoon. The memorial will be open to the public from 1 to 8 pm starting on Sunday, with masks and required social distance. The museum remains closed.
Later in the day, military aircraft flew over the city near the Statue of Liberty as part of what the government called “A salute to the great cities of the American Revolution.” The tour also included flyovers in Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.
New Yorkers were urged to avoid large festive gatherings to avoid an increase in coronavirus cases as other states are seeing it.
Governor Andrew Cuomo said there were more than 720 new confirmed coronavirus cases reported Friday across the state, and 11 deaths were attributed to the virus, far from the peak of the New York outbreak in April, when some days saw more than 10,000 new infections and 700 deaths across the state.
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