Andrew Cuomo to close NYC indoor dining next week if hospitalizations don’t stabilize

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday that he will shut down indoor dining in New York City if the hospitalizations there don’t stabilize.

“If after 5 days a region’s hospital rate has not stabilized, indoor dining will close or be reduced, the Democratic governor tweeted. “In NYC, indoor dining would close entirely. In rest of the state, indoor dining would be reduced to 25% capacity.”

Restaurants in New York City are currently only permitted to operate at 25% capacity indoors, while restaurants in the rest of the state can operate at 50%.

During his coronavirus press briefing, Mr. Cuomo explained that the state defines critical hospital capacity at 90%, and that if a particular region’s seven-day average shows it will hit critical hospital capacity within three weeks, that region will be placed on lockdown.

“[The CDC] offered additional guidance on indoor dining, especially, and we are going to follow their guidance,” Mr. Cuomo said. “We’re going to watch the hospitalization rate over the next five days. If that hospitalization rate doesn’t stabilize — which frankly I don’t expect it to. I think [infectious-disease expert Dr. Anthony] Fauci is right, you’ve seen the Thanksgiving wave is just starting to break, and then the Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa wave is going to start. So I don’t see it. New Yorkers could change it, right? Because it’s all a function of behavior.

“We’ll give the restaurants a couple of days to reorient,” he added. “We’ll say Monday — if the rates doesn’t stabilize. And again, forget the indoor dining. Let’s look at the big picture. We are looking at hospitalization capacity. And if we don’t get the rate under control and you are going to overwhelm your hospitals, we will have to go back to shut down. There are certain absolutes, OK?”