New York State Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay released a statement on the closure of indoor dining in New York City.
On Friday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that while restaurants are not a major source of spread in New York State at-large, officials needed to ‘do something’ as cases continue to rise across the state.
“Eliminating indoor dining in New York City will push restaurants and their employees to a point from which there is no recovery. The governor’s previous restrictions were nearly impossible to endure, and his latest decision threatens to inflict permanent damage to a critical sector of the city’s economy and workforce,” Barclay said. “People have a right to earn a living. These businesses have clearly demonstrated their ability to contain the spread of COVID, comply with capacity limits and implement effective social-distancing protocols. A transmission rate of only 1.43 percent is evidence of their commendable efforts in this regard.”
Losing the holiday season in total will continue to make a bad situation worse. It’s also unclear if indoor dining will be allowed to continue in the Finger Lakes after Monday. The Governor said that new zones would be announced then. On Friday, he outlined what each zone would mean.
“We are entering the coldest time of year and a highly-profitable season for restaurants. With a vaccine on the horizon, there was reason for optimism. But for thousands of men and women in the restaurant and food service industry, that optimism was taken away today, only to be replaced with fear as their livelihoods hang in the balance once again,” Barclay added.
Red zones will get shut down, Orange/Yellow zones will see less change
FingerLakes1.com is the region’s leading all-digital news publication. The company was founded in 1998 and has been keeping residents informed for more than two decades. Have a lead? Send it to [email protected].