Mayor Bill de Blasio announced at a press conference Thursday that the city does not currently have a set timeline for a return to dinner. The response was prompted by a reporter’s question about it at the press conference, and follows a press conference held by local restaurant owners and the NYC Hospitality Alliance yesterday, where restaurateurs demanded that the city release an indoor dining plan .
“We see it every day, but we need to see much more improvement before we consider it,” Blasio said at his news conference. “There is no timeline.”
The mayor pointed to the recent rise in COVID-19 cases in Hong Kong suspected of being linked to eating-in at restaurants, and also pointed to the rise in coronavirus cases across the country last month after the early opening of restaurants and bars. Many establishments have been forced to shake again due to the spike.
However, New York City is now the only place in the state that does not have indoor dining. The rest of the state has allowed restaurants to reopen half-capacity indoor spaces since mid-June, and NYC was set to resume indoor dining on July 6, before the indefinite time was delayed.
At the call from the Hospitality Alliance on Wednesday, restaurant owners pointed to the city’s current low-infection graves, and the fact that there is no spike in cases statewide after returning to indoor dining, as a reason for a plan to announce. Restaurateurs say many more restaurants could close in the coming weeks without the revenue boost from dining inside.
Yet the mayor and governor remain skeptical, in large part because of the density and population of New York City.
“They’re demographically different, they’re different by population, they’re different by density, they’re different by population factor,” God said. Andrew Cuomo at a press conference Wednesday referring to comparisons being made between the city and more suburban areas such as Westchester County and Nassau County.
Cuomo also pointed to the fact that more than 100 restaurants and bars in the city were cited for social distancing offenses in the past month – and many have locked up their liquor licenses – as a reason for more caution.
