Broadway theaters suspend all performances over coronavirus

Broadway suspended performances for a month Thursday and will not start up again until April 13 because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Broadway League announced.

The move comes in "support of the health and well-being of the theatre going public, as well as those who work in the theatre industry," the association said.

The world´s most famous theater district was hit by a ban on large public gatherings imposed on New Yorkers to stem the coronavirus outbreak.

Earlier, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo had told reporters only schools, hospitals, nursing homes and mass transit facilities would be allowed gatherings of more than 500 from Friday.

The capacity for seated venues is to be reduced by 50 percent, even if the occupancy is normally 500 or less.

The Broadway closure is a major blow for a tourism income stream that brought in more than $26.7 million last week alone.

The shutdown will be even longer than a landmark pause in 2007, when a stagehand strike dropped curtains for 19 days.

New York cultural institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced temporary closures and cancellations on Thursday over the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected 1,300 people in the US.