NEW YORK – Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Sunday possible new restrictions for some New York City communities, under his risk zones strategy for increases in COVID-19 cases, due to that increase in cases.
These restrictions could come as early as this week.
Parts of Staten Island, which are already in the yellow zone, could become orange zones, while others could become red zones. “Staten Island is a serious problem”said the governor. “We ran into a hospital capacity issue on Staten Island that we will have to deal with over the next few days.”
On the other hand, Upper Manhattan could also become a yellow zone.
The change in these places would bring the following restrictions depending on the color:
Red zones
- Schools: Closed, only remote
- Restaurants: take away food only
- Business: they only open essential businesses
- Mass meetings: Prohibited
- Houses of worship: 25% capacity, maximum 10 people
- Gyms: they can only open for remote classes
Orange areas
- Schools: Closed, only remote
- Restaurants: You can only eat outside, maximum 4 people per table
- Business: closing high-risk non-essential businesses such as gyms, beauty salons, etc.
- Mass meetings: 10 people maximum, indoors and outdoors
- Houses of worship: 33% capacity, maximum 25 people
Yellow areas
- Schools: weekly open and mandatory student and teacher / staff testing for in-person settings. The Health Department will set a percentage for Friday.
- Restaurants: open indoor and outdoor dining room, maximum 4 people per table
- Business: Open
- Mass meetings: 25 people maximum, indoors and outdoors
- Houses of worship: 50% capacity
The announcement comes at a time the governor calls the season from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Eve a “dangerous period.” “The problem is that a dangerous period is approaching because there is an increase in social activities, between now and New Year’s Eve,” he said during his press conference on Sunday. “We see that there are more parties, people are buying more, students are going home and the infection rates can increase. I believe that the cases of COVID-19 are going to increase, the question is how many and when ”, he said.
In New York, 5,391 cases of COVID-19 were recorded on Sunday, 2,562 hospitalizations were reported and 30 people died, according to the governor. In addition, he pointed out that the percentage of positivity in the state is 2.74%.
