Cuomo Slaps Tougher Penalties, Restrictions on NYC Restaurants
Cuomo Slaps Tougher Penalties, Restrictions on NYC Restaurants
(Bloomberg) -- New York City bars and restaurants will be subject to additional restrictions and tougher penalties for violations because of a lack of compliance, Governor Andrew Cuomo said.
Any establishment that receives three violations will be closed, Cuomo said Thursday on a call with reporters. “Egregious” violations can result in an immediate loss of a liquor license, he said.
In addition, alcohol can be served at a table only to people ordering food. Standing bars are prohibited statewide, officials said.
While New York City is on track to enter Phase 4 of its reopening Monday, no additional indoor activity will be allowed, because of the compliance problems, the governor said. A decision on the next phase will be announced Friday.
New York is in a “much, much better place” than it was weeks or months ago, but people traveling there from other states are a “continuing challenge and an increasing challenge,” he said.
Cuomo said New York had anticipated a second wave would come from a mutated form of Covid-19, but officials now fear a resurgence will come from other states that “failed to learn the lessons of the first wave.”
“This will be man-made and all self-created,” he said. “There’s no reason for this nation to be going through what it is going through now.”
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