Governor Andrew Cuomo is imposing new rules on bars and restaurants across New York and limiting the sale of alcohol in some cases, in hopes of preventing the spread of COVID-19.
Under new regulations set to take effect this weekend, alcohol at bars and restaurants can only be served to patrons who are seated at safely spaced tables and who are also ordering food. Cuomo, in a conference call with reporters Thursday, said regular bar service was never specifically authorized in outdoor dining rules, and it has led to numerous complaints of patrons not adhering to social distancing guidelines.
“If you’re not eating a meal and you’re just drinking, then it’s just an outdoor bar and people are mingling,” said Cuomo, who said all walk-up bar service will be banned.
The state liquor authority is investigating what the governor says is “significant evidence” of non-compliance by numerous restaurants and bars, and will publish the names of businesses who are charged with violations of the rules. Three violations will be cause for loss of a liquor license.
“New Yorkers are outraged at these establishments, we’re getting thousands of complaints, pictures, videos,” Cuomo said. “This is a question of public health.”
Cuomo says he welcomes more photos from the public about any potential violations that they might witness.
Andrew Rigie, executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, called the new rules “counterproductive.”
“People will simply gravitate to stoops, streets and parks with open containers creating less safe conditions elsewhere,” Rigie said in a statement. He said it “jeopardizes workers’ safety and subjects businesses to incredible liabilities for behaviors out of their control.”
New York City is poised to enter phase four of reopening Monday, the last region of the state do so. Cuomo says a final decision will be made by 4 p.m. on Friday. But he says indoor dining will not be allowed in the city, for now. He cites instances of other states where the virus is spiking at alarming rates, and where some scientists believe indoor dining and bar service has contributed to the spread of the disease.
New York reports that there were fewer new hospitalizations and fewer people in the hospital because of COVID-19 on July 15, but there were 769 new cases, and 14 people died of the virus.
The governor says he’s worried that despite a quarantine order for travelers from nearly two dozen states with high rates of infection, New York’s rate will rise once more.
He says 92% of those arriving on planes from those states are complying with requests to fill out forms listing the address in New York where they will be for two weeks. But he admits that does not necessarily mean they are actually quarantining, and health officials are doing random checks.
“Not everyone gets a knock on the door,” said Cuomo. “But it’s like any other law. You can speed, yeah, but if you get caught, you get the ticket.”
And the fines are steep, up to $2,000, and possibly a court ordered quarantine. Cuomo admits, though, that New York cannot question those driving from the other states or enforce quarantines for them.
Cuomo, in a later media call, praised a study by the Centers of Disease Control. It says a federal ban on travelers from Europe in mid-March came too late for New York City. Cuomo had contended that the influx of visitors sick with a strain of the virus from European countries contributed to the region’s high infection rate in the spring. He says now that’s confirmed, and it was a “terrible failing” by the federal government. He says President Trump has touted the ban he authorized on travelers from China in early February.
“By the time the President did the China travel ban it was too late,” Cuomo said. “Because the virus had left China and went to Europe.”
The governor also criticized the current handling of the virus in states where the numbers are spiraling upward, saying it is a “manmade second wave” of the virus, that didn’t have to happen. He says those state’s governors, and federal leaders, did not learn the lessons from the experience of New York and many other countries, who brought the disease under control, at least for now, through imposing strict safety rules including mandatory masks and measured reopening plans. Later, in an appearance on CNN, the governor say “thousands of Americans are dying who did not have to die.”
