All NYC Could Soon Fall Under 'Orange Zone' Restrictions: Cuomo

NEW YORK CITY — The entirety of New York City could soon be blanketed by a state-imposed "orange zone" that halts indoor dining, closes gyms and some non-essential businesses and imposes strict limits on gatherings in houses of worship.

That was the message Gov. Andrew Cuomo gave during a contentious news conference Wednesday as the city's parents and teachers awaited word whether schools would close.

That closure will happen on Thursday because the city surpassed a 3 percent average coronavirus threshold, Mayor de Blasio announced, shortly after Cuomo said the city — by the state's numbers — hadn't quite reached that mark.

A testy Cuomo laid into reporters confused by the conflicting messages and numbers from the city and state. He eventually clarified that the city and state measure coronavirus rates slightly differently.

"On schools their numbers govern, because they have the ability to set their number,” he said.

A 3 percent citywide COVID-19 rate by the state's numbers will trigger an orange zone, Cuomo said.

The state measures the positivity rate over a seven-day average at 2.54 percent, Cuomo said. De Blasio said the city's measure has it at exactly 3 percent.

De Blasio said state officials have made very clear additional restrictions could be coming.