New Yorkers headed out for a final night of indoor dining on Sunday before a ban comes into force today amid rising coronavirus cases across the city.
Andrew Cuomo announced the ban last week as the city’s ICU departments headed for 90 per cent capacity, flooded with critically ill coronavirus patients that left resources stretched to the maximum.
Cuomo said he hopes the ban will avoid a city-wide shut-down of all non-essential retail before Christmas, but restaurateurs warned it will be a hammer-blow for their industry with half of businesses facing closure.
From today, diners will only be allowed to eat outdoors even as temperatures hover around freezing with snow and rain forecast this week. Takeaway and delivery services will also be permitted.
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Indoor dining was only allowed to resume across the city in September, which was one of America’s early epicenters for the virus until strict lockdowns brought cases under control.
But cases have risen again as winter kicks in, when respiratory illnesses generally spread faster. In the last week, more than 20,000 new cases of the virus have been logged, along with 127 deaths.
There are currently 1,316 people in intensive care in New York City with the virus, compared to an average of 990 people over the previous month.
City data shows that most infections are still occurring during private gatherings in homes, but Cuomo said he has no powers to deal with that.
Closing dining rooms, he said, is ‘one of the few areas that we think we can actually make a difference’.
He also renewed calls for politicians in Washington to arrange bailouts for employees and businesses, where the details of a package are still being fought over.
It comes after a recent survey by the New York State Restaurant Association showed that 54 per cent of city restaurants are facing closure in the next six months if help does not arrive.
Almost two thirds said they are now considering going into hibernation until the pandemic is over.
Hakan Swahn, owner of restaurant Aquavit, told Time Out: ‘Closing all indoor dining is a devastating blow to thousands of restaurants and their employees.
‘The effects will be much worse than last spring since there is no safety net now. To shut down an entire industry without any compensation is incredibly unfair.’
Andrew Rigie, the director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, told the New York Times that closing restaurants is ‘at odds’ with state infection data and would ‘severely jeopardize’ the future of many businesses.
‘The restrictions begin on Monday with zero economic support for small businesses that are already struggling to survive,’ he added.
The move to shutter indoor dining marks a major blow to the city’s hard-hit restaurants which had only ever been able to reopen at a 25 percent capacity indoors since they first closed back in March.
The restaurant industry was crippled by months of closures during lockdown while the Big Apple was the epicenter of the global pandemic.
Outdoor dining has been extended for good so that restaurants and bars can welcome patrons to in-house dining but, with the temperatures dropping, concerns are growing around how some establishments will survive the winter.
The iconic 21 Club became the latest casualty this week when it announced to it 148 employees that it was forced to shut after 90 years in business.
The five-storey restaurant in the heart of Midtown Manhattan said Friday it was ceasing operations for the foreseeable future and its staff will be terminated by March of next year.
21 Club opened in 1930, during the height of the Prohibition Era, and become one of the country’s most notorious speakeasies welcoming famous faces and presidents including Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton.
On Friday, Cuomo said he would consider giving out state relief to ailing restaurants and bars but that he was going to wait to see what the federal government offers the industry first.
‘I understand the hardship. I suffer every last dollar with these businesses. They have a deficit, we have a deficit,’ he said.
‘Every dollar a business loses, we lose a percentage of that dollar. When you’re doing the calibration of the economic activity, you look at the risk level… It’s not forever.’
He added: ‘I believe the federal government should include subsidies for bars and restaurants in their relief package.
‘If we are in a situation in this state to provide business relief and we have any funds and resources that would allow us to do that I would be 100 percent supportive of it and I’ve advocated for it…
‘I believe the federal government should include subsidies for bars and restaurants. If we’re in a situation to provide relief, we’ll have to wait and see.’
