New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the British Museum will reopen its doors on August 27, following a five-month shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Museums in New York see the light

State Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Friday that New York's museums, art galleries and other cultural institutions will be allowed to reopen starting August 24.

However, there will be mandatory face masks, timed ticketing with staggered entry and just 25 percent occupancy, he said.

MoMA said in a statement that the entry will be free in the first month.

The famed Metropolitan Museum of Art, which normally welcomes seven million visitors a year, says it will reopen on August 29, and the Whitney Museum of American Art will reopen on September 3.

However, performing arts venues will remain shut until the end of the year. The Metropolitan Opera is scheduled to resume on December 31, while Broadway theaters will remain closed until at least January.

New York state was initially hard hit by COVID-19 and has recorded almost 33,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The virus has largely been brought under control there even as it has risen in other U.S. states.

Cultural venues reopen in staggered process in the UK

The iconic British Museum also announced its partial reopening after 163 days, the longest peacetime closure in its 261-year history.

The museum is one of the last of the country's major museums to reopen, with the National Gallery first reopening its doors on July 8, followed by the Tate galleries on July 27 and the National History Museum on August 5.

Free tickets are available to book online from August 12 with the reduced number of visitors required to ensure physical distancing and a safe and welcoming environment, according to the museum.

The museum will take a phased approach by first reopening a majority of the ground floor galleries to allow visitors to explore over 9,000 objects on one-way route, and then some of the upper floor galleries from September 21.

"Visitors are our lifeblood, and we have missed them greatly," said Hartwig Fischer, director of the British Museum, "And we are looking forward to welcoming back our international visitors as well in due course."

The country's theatres were allowed to reopen from July 4, but the live indoor performances were permitted from August 15.

A total of 319,197 COVID-19 cases have been recorded in the UK, with the number of new daily cases keeping under 2,000 since the beginning of June, according to the official data. For fear of the second wave of the novel coronavirus, the government has added France, Netherlands, Spain and Belgium to its 14-day quarantine list in recent weeks.

(With input from AFP)