NYC Indoor Dining Not 'Safe' For Reopening, De Blasio Says

NEW YORK CITY — Get used to cold outdoor meals, New Yorkers. Indoor dining looks unlikely to return anytime soon.

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday cast doubt on reopening indoor dining while coronavirus cases remain high and new variants spread across the country.

"I want to see indoor dining reopened when it's safe," he said.

"So when the numbers come down and we're confident that they're staying down, that is a great time to do it, but obviously we're not seeing it yet," he continued.

Hizzoner's skepticism followed Gov. Andrew Cuomo's hints Monday that he soon could ease some COVID-19 restrictions across the state.

But while Cuomo said the state's situation improved enough for a potential partial reopening, he pointedly made an exception for indoor dining in New York City, which is separately shut down.

The city's restaurant industry has been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns. Andrew Rigie, who heads the NYC Hospitality Alliance, took exception to Cuomo's indoor dining exception.

“Governor Cuomo’s never-ending restrictions keeping indoor dining closed at New York City restaurants, while keeping it open around the rest of the state where infection and hospitalization rates are higher than in New York City, is discriminatory and is destroying the livelihoods of small business owners and workers," Rigie said in a statement. "Multiple legal actions have been filed to reopen indoor dining in New York City and we are exploring all additional legal options on behalf of the city’s restaurant industry to ensure equitable treatment and application of the Governor’s Executive Orders."

De Blasio said he supports the city's restaurants but the main focus is "health and safety."

"So at this moment, we obviously still have way too many cases in the city," he said. "We have these new variants that we're watching really carefully. We're going to be governed by the data and the science.

"Right now the data and the science tells us be careful."