Cuomo Says NYC Indoor Dining Can Reopen at 25% Capacity Feb. 14

New York City indoor dining can reopen at 25% capacity on Feb. 14, or Valentine’s Day, Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

The city’s rate of positive Covid-19 tests has declined to 4.9% on Jan. 28, from 7.1% on Jan. 5. All predictive models suggest improvement will continue, Cuomo said Friday at a virus press briefing.

Cuomo had closed indoor dining in the most populous U.S. city on Dec. 12 after cases surged with colder weather and holidays increasing social gatherings. Restaurants have struggled to stay in business with just takeout, delivery and outdoor dining during the dead of winter.

Jeffrey Bank, CEO of Alicart Restaurant Group, which includes Carmine’s and Virgil’s BBQ in New York City, said that bringing back 25% capacity didn’t go far enough.

“The situation in NYC is dire and 25% is not going to cut it,” Bank said. “It’s like applying a band-aid to a gunshot wound or going to CityMD for open-heart surgery.”

Bank said he and other restaurant owners were frustrated by constantly-changing rules that differ by location. “We are confused as to why in the rest of New York state many areas with higher infections rates have 50% indoor dining?” he said. “No industry can be shut for 240 days and not expect dire consequences.”

Cuomo, in response to restaunters’ criticism, said the state will ease restrictions if numbers continue to improve. “Look, 25% is better than zero, and that’s where we are now,” he said.

On Thursday, New York Mayor de Blasio vowed to “bring our city back” as he outlined a recovery plan that hinges on vaccinating its more than 8 million residents amid a national vaccine shortage. He pledged to get workers back into offices, students in classrooms and 5 million people inoculated by the end of June.

New York City has recovered about a third of the 900,000 jobs it lost after the pandemic hit.

On Wednesday, the seven-day average of residents who tested positive dropped to 8.63%. The seven-day average of new cases also fell to 4,639, dropping below 5,000 for the first time this week.

While cases are expected to continue to go down, that could change, Cuomo warned. Other strains of the virus are a threat, he said.

“If there are facts and the facts change then we will have a different situation,” he said.

The state is also lifting restrictions for wedding receptions, Cuomo said. Starting on March 15, the celebrations can have 50% capacity, up to 150 people, provided it’s approved by the local health department and all patrons are tested, Cuomo said. The state is working on developing more capacity for rapid testing, he said.

Of 270,518 Covid-19 tests conducted statewide on Thursday, 12,579 or 4.65% were positive, the lowest since Dec. 11, Cuomo said. There were 151 fatalities. Hospitalizations declined by 163 to 8,357.

The state’s vaccinations are “going very, very well,” with more than 1.7 million shots administered, Cuomo said. The state is beginning to use the 250,400 doses alloted this week, and plans to open Yankee Stadium as a mass vaccination site, he said.

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