New York City Bars and Restaurants to Close Indoors Due to Rising Covid-19 Cases

What many had feared for weeks in New York came true. Starting next Monday, bars and restaurants in the Big Apple will have to shut down their indoor service, due to the increase in COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations.

Miamimundo / diariony

This was announced on Friday by Governor Andrew Cuomo, after completing the five-day period he had set since last Monday for hospitalizations to stabilize in the five counties, noting instead that they are on the increase. Currently, the city’s hospitals have 1,668 inpatients with COVID-19, while the statewide number already exceeds 5,321 cases, bringing hospital capacity to over 80%. The average number of infections over the past 7 days has risen to 5.35%, with 2,559 new positive cases and 87 deaths statewide.

“The indoor dining room will close in New York from Monday. Hospitalizations have not stabilized and with an increasing infection rate and density in New York City, that means eating indoors is too high of a risk, ”the president said, warning that other services will continue without changes. “Food to go, home and away will continue.”

Cuomo said he understands the move will have an impact on business, but assured that by not ordering the closure of restaurants inside, there is a serious risk of more extreme closures like those that have took place in the spring.

“If we have 90% of the hospitals at full capacity, if we see this and we see the hospital system overwhelmed, there would be no choice but to shut down the economy,” Cuomo said, adding that the situation is so critical in some areas of the Big Apple, like Staten Island, which makes up just 5% of New York’s population, recorded 26 deaths on the last day, or nearly 25% of all deaths.

“In New York the transmission rate is increasing, this is the main problem, it has increased and in dense environments it is a big problem,” said the president. “In New York, what’s going to happen is they’ll go from 25% domestic service to zero, and while I know that’s an impact, we’ve compensated for things in a number of ways, like dining rooms abroad, which have grown in size and Take out orders are now something different (…) it’s not that I don’t understand or appreciate the losses, because we are also losing a part of every dollar, but we did what we could and with this transmission density it makes sense to do it ”.

Cuomo did not mention when indoor service in bars and restaurants could be reinstated, and mentioned that this will depend on the analysis of indicators in the coming weeks, when it is expected that cases will continue to increase due to the Christmas season and large family gatherings which, although they should be avoided, assured that they will likely be given.

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