ALBANY, New York, U.S. (AP) – Eating inside restaurants in New York City will be banned again in an attempt to stem a resurgence of the coronavirus, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday in an announcement that could herald a gloomy winter for one of the most important sectors of the city.
Starting Monday, takeout and eating orders will only be allowed in the outdoor areas of establishments in the city, one of the great culinary capitals of the world, the governor said at a press conference in Albany.
Cuomo had hinted that he would again ban eating inside restaurants for a week, noting that he was just waiting to see if hospitalization rates stabilized, which has not happened. Almost 1,700 patients are hospitalized with COVID-19 in the city, triple from a month ago.
Cuomo said he must act despite financial damage to the city’s 24,000 or so restaurants and its legions of employees.
“In New York City, if you put the warning from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) together with the transmission rate and density and crowding, you have a bad situation.” said Cuomo, adding that the measure will be reassessed in two weeks.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said he supported Cuomo’s decision.
“This is painful. Many restaurants are in trouble. But we cannot allow this virus to assert itself in our city, ”the mayor said on Twitter.
At ilili, a sprawling Lebanese-Mediterranean restaurant in Manhattan, owner Philippe Massoud said a ban on serving inside the premises is likely to cut revenue by 8-15%, in the best of scenarios.
“It’s going to be very, very difficult,” said Massoud, who is originally from Lebanon. “I lived through 14 years of civil war, so it will take a lot to extinguish me. But this is very hard ”.
The restaurant is trying to make up for lost sales by venturing into retail food kits and food kits, such as cheese and flatbread.
However, Massoud is concerned that another ban could make New York City an untenable place for restaurant employees who are suffering financially, and for customers wondering if the Big Apple is worth living in.
If you can’t go out to eat in the city or have something that resembles a life, why be in the city? He wondered. “When the social life and the life of dining out dies out, it is no longer a city.”
The governor issued his order despite opposition from the troubled restaurant industry, which warned of layoffs in the year-end season and at a time when the federal government has yet to approve new assistance to make up for COVID losses. -19.
The order is a “huge coup,” said Melissa Fleischut, president and CEO of the New York State Restaurant Association.
“This move will inevitably result in large-scale layoffs and vast shutdowns before the end of the year holidays,” Fleischut said in a statement, noting that it was “unfair and devastating.”
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Associated Press reporters Jennifer Peltz and Michael R. Sisak contributed to this report.
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