The New York City Sheriff’s Office, which has been the city’s primary agency for enforcing coronavirus restrictions in bars and restaurants, will have additional deputies who will work on New Years Eve to monitor and disband all illegal parts, Sheriff Joe Fucito said on Wednesday.
Throughout the year, sheriff’s deputies have been responsible for disbanding dozens of major parties that violate New York State’s pandemic rules on rallies. Since the spring, MPs have organized a crowded sex party in Queens and a fight club in the Bronx and suppressed a bar on Staten Island, a dispute that has made national headlines.
New Years Eve in New York has long been a night for crowded parties in bars and clubs, but the pandemic has turned nightlife upside down. Many venues are not allowed to open, and restaurants and bars are only allowed to serve outdoors, but must end service by 10 p.m.
Sheriff Fucito said MPs will focus on enforcing the rules in places that violate a number of state and municipal laws, including bans against on-stage pyrotechnics, overcrowding and the illegal sale of alcohol.
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On Wednesday night, many New Yorkers were out shopping to prepare for a quiet New Years Eve at home. Mattie Weatherby was at a Party City in Manhattan shopping for wreaths, hats, pearls and plastic champagne flutes. Ms Weatherby said she and her fiance would cook dinner – possibly a roast chicken – and drink champagne with two other couples. She said they were regularly tested for the coronavirus, adding: “We are trying to be responsible.”
The liquor stores nearby seemed rather quiet compared to the bustling Party City. Alexis Raia, director of Chelsea Wine Country, said his store had just 156 sales on Wednesday night, up from 216 on December 30 last year. Most of the purchases were individual bottles of champagne, rather than the usual cases of it.
Ali Muhana, an employee of Wine on Nine, said his store didn’t even sell “30 percent of what we sold last year.”
“We’ve seen with Christmas one of our big days before, it didn’t happen at all,” Mr. Muhana said. “I don’t think the New Year will be any better.”
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