Written by Claire Leaden and Justine Golata
With talk earlier this week of another indoor dining shutdown, Andrew Cuomo made the official call today, December 11.
Following the rising COVID-19 rates after the holidays, Governor Cuomo stated at a press conference on December 7th that if NYC’s hospitalization rate continued to rise within the next 5 days, indoor dining would be banned.
Since the rate has not stabilized after that time, indoor dining in NYC must halt this coming Monday, Dec.14.
Cuomo said that he understands it will detrimentally hurt local businesses, but that public health has to take priority. In hopes of helping them, he will extend the commercial eviction moratorium — so, if businesses are unable to pay their rent, they cannot be evicted from their space.
As of yesterday, there were 5,164 hospitalizations and New York was at a 5.15% positivity rate, much higher than the statewide 3.62% prior to Thanksgiving. In the briefing he discussed this increase and how the state will act to counter the rising number of cases.
He said they will continue to analyze the data, and if anything changes, the regulations will change as well.
Indoor dining will close in New York City starting Monday.
Hospitalizations have not stabilized, and with a rising infection rate and NYC’s density, this means that indoor dining is too high of a risk.
Takeout, delivery and outdoor dining will continue.
— Archive: Governor Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) December 11, 2020
Hopefully all of the measures now in place will result in decreasing cases and a trend of lower positivity rates. And though there will be no more indoor dining starting Monday, you can still support your favorite restaurants by ordering for delivery or pick-up!
featured image source: shutterstock