New York City, considered the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, is entering the next stage of reopening, now allowing offices to bring workers back, said the New York Times. However, much as with the previous phase of reopening restaurants and other businesses, companies and organizations will be doing so with restrictions, as they must still limit the number of people inside at once and follow social-distancing guidelines. These limitations, combined with major layoffs, have meant that while technically offices are now open, only a fraction of office workers have returned so far. New York is apparently trying to reopen more carefully than states such as Arizona, where cases are now rising as state governments set few to no restrictions after lifting lockdowns and only recently allowed local governments the autonomy to set their own restrictions.

Most New York City office workers will likely remain home for a while, as a poll of business leaders in New York City found that most believe that only 10 percent of their employees will return before the middle of August. Even after this point, it is likely that offices will still be emptier than before, as more will work from home: Nationally, it was estimated that some 34 percent of former office dwellers were working from home in early April, while another survey in May found that 54 percent of Americans would prefer to work primarily from home after the pandemic ends.