De Blasio hinted that he will not allow indoor dining to return until there is a vaccine for COVID-19.
From The New York Post:
The mayor sounded less than optimistic that eatery owners and workers would be able to start earning a living again — and diners able to enjoy a meal inside an eatery — before the June 1, 2021, return date, set earlier this month.“We do expect — and pray for and expect — a vaccine in the spring that will allow us to get more back to normal,” he said at his daily press briefing, “but I will absolutely tell you, we’re going to keep looking for that situation where we can push down the virus enough where we would have more ability to address indoor dining.”
Whatever happened to flattening the curve? Now people have to wait until there’s a vaccine?
I mean, de Blasio said that the city has a 0.59% infection rate. It’s one of the lowest since the pandemic started!
But it’s not low enough: “Is there a way where we can do something safely with indoor dining? So far we have not had that moment, honestly.”
In other words, it had nothing to do with flattening the curve. I guess it’s a good way to keep the people on the government payroll.
Governor Andrew Cuomo found other reasons like the flu. Oh, NOW they take the flu seriously:
“We are coming into Labor Day,” he said. “Labor Day will see more people going back to school. That is a factor we have to watch. We’re coming into the fall. Flu season is a factor that we have to watch.”He also indicated the lack of compliance enforcement is not helping. Cuomo asked out loud who will monitor the restaurants if they are only permitted to occupy 25% of their indoor dining space?Cuomo said the state is watching and considering but not rushing into a decision, while de Blasio sounded far more dire and suggested indoor dining may be months away.
But de Blasio and Cuomo might have to recant his decision since New Jersey will now allow “indoor dining with limited capacity.”
Pressure will come from the NYC Hospitality Alliance:
“With indoor dining resuming soon in New Jersey, New York City will be surrounded by indoor dining but locked out from participating at significant economic peril,” said Andrew Rigie, executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance. “The situation is at a boiling point, and our government leaders must immediately develop a plan to reopen indoor dining across the five boroughs, like what’s been provided to restaurants throughout the rest of the state. Otherwise, our city’s economic crisis will reach a point it cannot come back from, with thousands of more restaurants permanently closing and likely more lawsuits filed against the government.”
It’s not just New Jersey. NYC diners can hop over to Long Island and Westchester to enjoy indoor dining.
We’ve seen restaurants and eateries close down from the initial shutdown. What will happen if NYC remains shut down?
Rigie stressed that these places “are hanging on by just a thread” and “employ hundreds of thousands of people.”
Hold Fast owner Jason Clark pleaded with officials to let them open up so they can survive. He knows people will not want to eat outside in the cold:
“Please give us an opportunity to move forward, to allow our guests to have that experience, we will take care of public health,” Clark said. “That’s always been our top priority, just give us guidelines and we will follow them.”
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