COURIER L 20 IFE, FEBRUARY 5-11, 2021
Indoor dining
to resume on
Valentine’s Day
Bryanna Vaquero, left, eats lunch with her mother, Andrea,
and father, Javier, inside The Bridgeview Diner in Bay Ridge.
Photo by Caroline Ourso
BY BEN VERDE
Now you have no excuse
not to have a date
this Valentine’s Day.
New York City restaurants
will resume indoor
dining at 25 percent capacity
on Feb. 14, Gov. Andrew
Cuomo announced
Friday, citing the city’s
dropping infection rate
and stating with confi -
dence that positive tests
will continue to fall.
According to state
data, New York City’s infection
rate peaked at 7.1
percent on Jan. 4, and
has fallen to 4.9 percent
since then. The state’s
dataset differs from the
city’s data, which listed
the city’s infection rate at
over 8 percent on Jan. 29
— where it remained as
as of Feb. 3.
Cuomo also intends
to allow weddings and
wedding venues to operate
again with up to 150
guests after March 15
— with an emphasis on
rapid COVID testing for
all guests.
“You could make a reservation
now or plan dinner
on Valentine’s Day, you
propose on Valentine’s day,
and then you can have the
wedding ceremony March
15, up to 150 people,” he
said. “People will actually
come to your wedding because
you can tell them
with the testing it will be
safe, everyone there will
have been tested.”
Hospitality groups celebrated
Cuomo’s decision
but questioned the logic of
making struggling restaurants
wait over two weeks
to reopen and only allowing
25 percent capacity
while establishments outside
of the city, where infection
rates are higher in
some regions, are allowed
50 percent capacity.
“Unfortunately, once
again the state’s standards
are being applied
inequitably in the fi ve boroughs
without a transparent
and data-driven system
for further reopening
the city’s restaurant economy,”
said Andrew Rigie,
of the New York City Hospitality
Alliance.
Others criticized
Cuomo for allowing restaurants
to reopen before
restaurant workers are eligible
for the coronavirus
vaccine, and called on the
governor to expand eligibility
to include hospitality
workers.
“The governor must
make the vaccine available
immediately for all
service industry workers
who will be working,”
tweeted Manhattan City
Council candidate Marti
Cummings.
Studies have shown
indoor dining to be a
high-risk activity during
the pandemic, with
some data showing that
six feet of distance is not
enough to prevent infection
in an indoor maskless
setting.
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