The city that never sleeps has been forced into slumber.
The coronavirus cast an eerie stillness across Midtown Manhattan on Friday evening — and with a statewide lockdown coming this weekend, it’ll be settling in for the long haul.
Some of the most familiar, busiest places in New York appear foreign without the bustling crowds that filled them until just a few days ago.
There are no lines for theaters on Broadway, no young folks rushing to nightclubs and no businesspeople hustling to Grand Central Terminal for their trains out of town for the weekend.
In Times Square, the famed TKTS stairs have been fenced off, but live entertainment could still be had — a saxophonist wailing for an unusually small crowd. There was no cover charge or waiters — just a handful of police officers waiting around for something to happen.
There’s no clear view of when people could pack these spaces again. The state lockdown will be in place in the further notice, with Gov. Andrew Cuomo believing it could last months as the country and the world try to stem the COVID-19 pandemic.
