New York.- The governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, reinstated the ban on eating inside restaurants in New York City on Friday as the contagion of coronavirus.
Starting on Monday, you will only be allowed to eat outside or buy take out meals, Cuomo said at a news conference in Albany, the state capital.
The Democrat had been hinting at the measure for a week, saying he was waiting to see if hospitalization rates stabilized. The government’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, spoke to Cuomo via live broadcast on Monday and said he expects hospitalizations to continue to rise through mid-January.
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The governor’s order came despite opposition from the beleaguered restaurant industry, which warned of Christmas season layoffs at a time when the federal government has yet to pass an economic bailout plan.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio had said he expected the indoor dining room to shrink.
Public health experts have repeatedly warned that indoor meals, particularly in small, crowded restaurants where people drink and can remove masks when not eating, pose an airborne risk. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently described these types of places as “high risk.”
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New York cmissed non-essential business in March, forcing restaurants to rely on takeout and home delivery. The state began allowing indoor dining in some regions outside of New York City in June, and Cuomo allowed indoor dining at 25% capacity in the city on September 30.
Critics pointed to Cuomo’s repeated statements that small gatherings and “living room spread” appear to be fueling the second wave of virus infections. But the governor’s administration has acknowledged that New York cannot identify a single source of transmission for about 80% of cases as of late fall.
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