Yoga practitioners taking in the sights as they attended a class on the Edge Observation Deck, billed as the "highest outdoor sky deck in the Western Hemisphere" at 345m, and overlooking the Manhattan skyline in New York, on Thursday.

Restrictions due to the pandemic have been gradually lifted in the United States with over 52 per cent of the US population, or 174 million people, having received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, according to health officials.

On Monday, New York City announced that 64.8 per cent of adults had received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Virtually all coronavirus restrictions on businesses and social gatherings have been lifted in the state.

Restaurants will no longer have to space tables apart; movie theatres are allowed to pack their screening halls; and temperature checks will no longer be needed to enter commercial buildings.

However, the state will still abide by masking guidelines from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, which has advised that unvaccinated people should wear masks indoors.

Some public health experts expressed concerns about the fuller reopening of New York, saying the vaccination rate needs to be increased before autumn, when more people stay indoors.

Others, however, said that improving infection and hospitalisation rates, as well as the number of people that have been vaccinated, warrants abandoning restrictions.

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