More than 130 New York bars and restaurants, primarily in the Big Apple, have been raped by the state in the past three days for ignoring coronavirus security protocols, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Monday.
“I want establishments to know that we will continue to diligently apply the law. That is what it is: it is enforcing the law, ”Cuomo told reporters during a conference call when he announced the new statistics.
The Cuomo-controlled State Liquor Authority issued 52 violations on Friday, 53 on Saturday, and 27 on Sunday to restaurants and pubs that violate social distancing and face mask rules, and over the weekend 10 establishments suspended their liquor licenses.
“This is primarily in New York City,” Cuomo said of where the violations were issued.
In addition to the Big Apple, SLA investigators were also in Nassau and Suffolk counties over the weekend as part of the Cuomo crackdown on bars and restaurants, but “no violations were issued in Nassau and Suffolk,” the governor.
“But they were broadcast in the Bronx and Brooklyn and Manhattan and Queens and Staten Island,” he explained.
If a bar or restaurant receives three infractions, the establishment will automatically suspend its liquor license under Cuomo’s orders.
“Three violations and you lose it. Three strikes and you’re out, “said Cuomo, adding that since the start of the pandemic, a total of 40 pubs and restaurants across the state have suspended their liquor licenses.
The governor said he is “sympathetic” to the “difficult situation” of financially devastated establishments due to the COVID-19 crisis, “But we also have to protect public health, and we get nothing if we have to reverse some rules and regulations on bars. and restaurants. “
Cuomo said the SLA has been tough on New York City and the southern part of the state because “many of the local governments in upstate New York are applying the rules more aggressively.”
“The state effort is complementing the local effort,” Cuomo said. “So we are seeing increased compliance by local governments outside of New York City. That is why we are focusing on New York City because we can only complement each other. “
Still, Cuomo said, “Most bars and restaurants have been great, they really have been great.”
“It’s always the same thing, it’s a handful of bad actors that ruin it for everyone,” Cuomo said. “And it’s the bad actors who end up hurting the good guys.”
Meanwhile, the governor said the state has seen a slight increase in the number of New York children sick with the rare Kawasaki-like inflammatory disease potentially related to the coronavirus.
The state now has 240 confirmed cases of the condition, called multi-system inflammatory syndrome, or MIS-C, which has increased from about 15 since last month, Cuomo said.
“But, New York is not a good indicator of this because the number of cases is decreasing across the board, right?” Cuomo said, explaining, “We haven’t seen it increase significantly in New York.”
During the conference call, Cuomo said the state “will invest” in 20 companies to boost production of personal protective equipment in the event that New York is hit with a second wave of the killer bug.
Empire State Development Corp. “has identified 20 companies we will invest in that will increase their EPP manufacturing capacity and part of that agreement will be that those companies will make that EPP available to New York State for our healthcare facilities when and if we we need, “Cuomo said.
If a second wave of the coronavirus were to arrive, Cuomo said, “We cannot be touring the world and paying exorbitant prices for medical equipment.”
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