Bars, Restaurants Get 10 P.M. Curfew Amid Coronavirus Rise: Cuomo

NEW YORK CITY — A coronavirus resurgence will trigger a new 10 p.m. curfew for bars, restaurants and gyms across New York City and the state, as well as new restrictions for Staten Islanders.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday announced new rules to stop the growing spread of COVID-19. He said contact tracers identified bars and restaurants, indoor gatherings and gyms as helping drive the virus's growth.

New York's statewide positivity rate stands at 2.9 percent, Cuomo said.

"It is really getting much, much worse by the day,” he said.

Cuomo said the new restrictions require State Liquor Authority-licensed establishments, mostly bars and restaurants, to close at 10 p.m. each day starting Friday. They can continue food-only pickup after 10 p.m. but can't have any customers inside, he said.

Likewise, gyms will be required to close at 10 p.m., Cuomo said.

New York also will set a 10-person cap on parties at private residences, unless the household itself has more people, Cuomo said. The party rule is similar to other restrictions in New Jersey and Connecticut, he said.

The state also will put parts of Staten Island under a "yellow zone," Cuomo said. The state later released a map showing much of Staten Island covered by the zone, which sets weekly testing rules for schools, restricts indoor and outdoor dining to a four-person per table maximum and sets a 50 percent capacity for houses of worship.

Cuomo noted most of New York's "micro clusters" are near other states with higher coronavirus levels, and pointed to Staten Island and New Jersey as an example.

"I think that’s the proximity and the mobility with Jersey," he said.

The new rules drew a quick response from GOP Staten Island Council Member Joe Borelli.

"I'll be having more than 10 ppl at my house on Thanksgiving," he tweeted. "My address is public record. Some family will come from (gasp!) New Jersey."

Some Twitter users responded that Borelli appeared to be encouraging ill-advised behavior during a deadly pandemic. One tweeted a list of Borelli's constituents who died from COVID-19.

And the leader of a powerful restaurant industry group also voiced displeasure with Cuomo’s announcement. Andrew Rigie, executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, quickly released a statement bemoaning a lack of “important details” for restaurants.

“They don’t know if the restrictions apply to indoor and outdoor dining, and if customers need to leave the restaurant by 10:00pm or if they can finish their meals, which is creating more confusion, so we hope that information is released immediately,” he wrote. “These new restrictions should be publicly justified with contact tracing data because they will make it even more difficult for these small businesses to survive. We demand that our elected leaders provide financial support to our city’s restaurants and bars before they permanently shutter and put tens of thousands of New Yorkers out of work.”