NYC mayor urges grocers to require shoppers to cover faces

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City advised grocery stores Wednesday to require customers to cover their faces while shopping as officials said they would create an emergency food reserve and take other steps to safeguard residents’ sustenance. Meanwhile, the mayor urged a cautious approach to reviving the economy.

Here are the latest coronavirus developments in New York:

FOOD PLAN

In a city where 1.2 million residents — including one in five children — already struggled at times to feed themselves, the number is expected to grow as an estimated half-million New Yorkers have lost or are likely to lose their jobs in the immediate future.

“We will make sure everyone gets the food they need,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said in unveiling a $170 million plan to help.

The city already is handing out 250,000 free meals a day at schools and delivering 25,000 a day to senior citizens. Officials expect to provide 10 million free meals in April and expect the need to grow to as much as 15 million in May.

Meanwhile, the city has contacted some 11,000 taxi and livery drivers — whose livelihoods have been shattered as people stay home — to hire them to deliver meals to those who can’t leave home, the mayor said.

While officials said the city food supply is stable, they also plan to create a $50 million reserve of as many as 18 million shelf-stable meals.

And in what de Blasio cast as another step to safeguard the food supply, the city is calling for stores to make customers wear face coverings in order to protect store workers against exposure.

“We need to keep each other safe. We need to keep these grocery store and supermarket workers safe,” he said at a news briefing.

The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. For some, especially older...