Indoor Dining in NYC is Shutting Down...Again

On December 11, 2020, Governor Cuomo announced that starting December 14, 2020, restaurants in New York City will no longer be able to have customers eating indoors. This change has been made due to an uptake in Covid case in the city. 

On September 9, 2020 Governor Cuomo announced the reopening of restaurants would be on September 30, 2020. This is with a 25% occupancy limit. Restaurants have been open since then. But now with there being more Covid cases in the city, the Mayor has decided it is best to shut down indoor dining, to reduce the spread of the virus. 

This is a big turn of events for the city. It’s like they’re back to the start of the pandemic. The New York Post said that Mayor Bill de Blasio told CNN, “There’s the potential of having to do a full pause, a full shutdown, in the coming weeks…” This is not good news. The mayor also said that, “We’re seeing the kind of level of infection with the coronavirus we haven’t seen since May and we have got to stop that momentum — or else, our hospital system will be threatened.” Is it possible for New York to go back into lockdown? Hopefully this doesn’t happen, especially since the vaccine for the virus is supposed to be distributed soon.

According to data that the Governor provided, it shows that restaurants and bars are most likely not the primary cause of the uptake in Covid cases in NYC. It’s most likely from people having private gatherings. Especially since the holidays just passed and many are approaching, people are probably having family over. 

Hopefully with Christmas coming up, we don’t see the amount of Covid cases increase. If the cases do increase it is most likely that there will be a shutdown on everything.