Cuomo To NYC Coronavirus Partiers: Knock It Off, Don't Be Stupid

NEW YORK CITY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo directed a blunt message to New York City partiers seen crowding together: knock it off or else.

"If it happens, we’re going to have to roll back the opening plan," Cuomo said Monday.

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— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) July 20, 2020

Cuomo's threat to roll back New York City's long-awaited reopening followed a weekend of rowdy party scenes in Astoria and the Lower East Side.

Those congregations form one of two threats to New York's now-low coronavirus numbers, he said. The other comes from increasing COVID-19 infection rates in 40 other states, he said.

New York instituted a mandatory quarantine for travelers from coronavirus hot spots, but Cuomo said it's all but certain infected people from elsewhere will add to the state's 1 percent infection rate.

"It’s virtually impossible to enforce with total certainty," he said.

But homegrown coronavirus spreaders in the form of booze-swilling New York City carousers — and the bars, restaurants and local officials who enable them — received the brunt of Cuomo's ire.

He has long warned about congregations, mostly of young people, in New York City's parks and eateries forming potential coronavirus breeding grounds.

Young people too often think they're invincible superheroes, he said. They need to be aware that not only can they catch the virus, but they can also spread it, he said.

"Take it from a person who's lived a lot of life — don't be stupid," Cuomo said.

Cuomo last week instituted a "three strikes" rule against bars and restaurants found violating social guidelines. He urged "local government" and police to enforce compliance — a potentially fraught prospect in New York City after a NYPD crackdown on social distancing overwhelmingly targeted people of color.

Enforcing the law could be "politically unpopular" for local governments, Cuomo said.

"That's going to be more politically difficult than telling the NYPD to do their job," he said.

"We have to protect the progress we have made," he said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday also addressed the late night pandemic party problem. He pledged to crack down on reveling restaurants, particularly along Astoria's Steinway Street, where scenes of less-than-socially-distant merriment have gone viral.

Police stepped up patrols, handed out tickets and worked to disperse crowds along the thoroughfare, de Blasio said. At least one restaurant got kicked out of the city's outdoor dining program.

"If they do not cooperate in our efforts to contain the coronavirus, they will be shut down," de Blasio said during a Monday news briefing. "When we agreed to let this part of our life come back, it was not meant to be business as usual."