New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) on Monday signaled that the Phase III reopening process in New York City may not include indoor dining.
The potential pause on moving toward indoor dining comes after Florida and Texas both closed down bars late last week amid surging COVID-19 infections in the two states.
Both Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio initially said that all five boroughs of the city are slated to enter Phase III on July 6, which would reopen indoor dining and personal care services at reduced capacity in addition to outdoor recreation facilities.
Cuomo’s tune changed during a briefing on Monday, saying that indoor dining has proved to be “problematic” due to how the coronavirus would spread in closed, indoor areas using air conditioning.
After noting that outdoor dining has “worked very well all across the state,” including New York City, Cuomo said that he has spoken to restaurant owners about the risk reward on indoor dining.
Cuomo went on to cite the recent spike in coronavirus cases in several states in arguing why indoor dining presents “a real issue.”
“Our reopenings have worked very well, we’re not going backwards, we’re going forward,” Cuomo said. “A lot of these other states have actually had to go backwards, they started to reopen and then they had to stop.”
Cuomo then said that a final decision on indoor dining will be made by Wednesday so that “people who operate those types of businesses will know what we’re doing.”
Earlier Monday, Cuomo warned that he’s considering slowing down the reopenings of malls and indoor dining during a call-in interview with NY1.
“Not going backwards, but we may actually slow them down,” Cuomo told NY1 Monday morning.
Cuomo isn’t alone in reconsidering the reopenings of bars and restaurants.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced on Sunday that he’s ordering bars to close in several counties throughout the state, which include the populous Los Angeles County, in light of a rise in coronavirus cases. On Saturday, California reported an increase of nearly 6,000 confirmed cases from the previous day.
NEW: Due to the rising spread of #COVID19, CA is ordering bars to close in Fresno, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Los Angeles, San Joaquin, and Tulare, while recommending they close in Contra Costa, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Stanislaus, & Ventura.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 28, 2020
Last week, Cuomo ripped into Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) as his state emerged as a coronavirus hotspot. Cuomo said that DeSantis and other Republican governors “played politics with this virus and you lost” for their approach to easing up coronavirus-related restrictions.
Watch Cuomo’s remarks below:
Every blue state should pause reopening. Protect hard won gains. Put in quarantines for folks traveling in from red states.
This past weekend I did pick up at a restaurant in LA. I was told that they just come to your car and drop it off in your trunk. That didn’t happen. Instead, there was a big line out the door for folks looking to dine in. I opened the door to see where the food pick up line was and saw a full restaurant in cramped quarters and no masks (even when they had finished eating and were chatting). Seating arrangements were insufficiently distanced imho, but besides that LA is just not ready for in-room dining. We have nearly 100k infections in the County. Two friends can go out for dinner, but they may not have been quarantining together and can infect the other even if they’re socially distanced from a spacing standpoint from others. But w/the A/C blowing stuff around and people talking, folks are going to get infected.
I saw my takeout bag, ran in grabbed it and ran out.
These blanket quarantines need to go, those weren’t designed for this mass of people or this length of time, it’s really not a surprise that people are starting to get antsy.
Rather, you need better enforcement of mask-wearing while indoors, sanitary steps, and the like.
And biggest, you need the government to start paying people to stay home. When the eviction protections run out in July, it’s going to be an absolute shitshow. People need to have enough money to get by. If the government is going to continue to compel businesses to stay shut or limit operations, they need to figure out how to get enough money to the businesses and their employees to fall in line.
New York already went through hell and I know no one wants thousands more cases and deaths. Stick to it New York.
Where I just moved, totally stressful, but that’s another story there’s a great bakery where you order one day and pick up outside two days later. Also, found a CSA and I drive to the farm, farmer with mask puts the produce into my car. These people at least are doing the right thing in a small city in the Shenandoah Valley.
Virginia has done a good job so far, and as far as I’ve observed, with good compliance.
Northam’s decisions to keep a lighter hand on things and generally encourage rather than compel compliance seems to have paid off so far.
Warm weather and sunshine are giving people the wrong idea about the virus. Masks and social distancing are needed to maintain our flattened curve here in the NE.