As the biggest stars of music descend on New York this week for the Video Music Awards, NYPD cops will come up to check out the shows.
But they will not judge the talent. Officials in the NYPD’s TV / Movie unit will see if the artists and their entourages wear masks and remain socially distant, city officials told The Post.
Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande and many others are set to perform at various outdoor venues “with a limited or no audience” on Sunday, August 30th. The original location of the show at Barclays Arena was dropped due to COVID-19 concerns.
“The Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and Citywide Events is working in close coordination with the production to ensure that guidelines are followed,” a City Hall spokesman said, adding that the NYPD unit will conduct “compliance checks during the production. “
But unlike other travelers, VMA musicians, singers and dancers do not have to follow a 14-day state quarantine rule when coming to one of 34 states, including California and Florida, to New York, with an average COVID infection rate more and 10 percent.
Under an executive order from Gov. Andrew Cuomo is anyone who violates the quarantine order, subject to a fine of up to $ 10,000 or up to 15 days in jail.
But the state Department of Health has granted the VMAs a semi-exemption for the quarantine rule.
They can “participate in the production of the show,” said a Cuomo spokeswoman, “but they will only interact with other cast and crew members and will be quarantined if they do not work.”
To receive the exemption, the VMAs have agreed to police themselves with “strict security protocols, including testing and screening and compliance checks by a special compliance officer.”
Some celebs find other ways to smoke the COVID-19 rules.
Kanye West flew into Teterboro Airport, NJ on Thursday, and then went to Manhattan, where he pulled onto the West Side Highway to change cars, and visited an art gallery in Chelsea, reports The Post.
Later that day, he went back through the Lincoln Tunnel to catch another flight.
The quarantine rules do not apply to anyone from a restricted state who “goes through New York” for less than 24 hours, but is intended for those who stop at rest stops or on travel recordings.
The wife of West Kim Kardashian and her four children remained in LA, but it was unclear whether he flew to California. The rapper’s rep did not respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, some 415,000 travelers who fly or ride to New York since June 25 after visiting one of the 34 restricted states have “voluntarily” completed health care, state officials said.
The forms ask for the traveler’s home country, their destination, the names, age and gender of each of their children, and contact information such as email address and phone numbers, among other details.
“Are you authorized to receive daily monitoring messages via text from the New York State Contact Tracing Program?” asks the form.
“If you do not agree to text, you will receive a daily phone call,” he adds.
Those who refuse to fill out the form will see a call and a possible $ 2,000 fine.
Officials so far cited “nearly 100 percent compliance.”
But the forms are also meant to serve as a deterrent to people thinking twice about traveling to restricted states.
Like a speed limit that not all speeders catch, officials acknowledge, many who may violate the 14-day quarantine order may discover.
‘We do not expect to catch every person. We have no way of enforcing it on every person, “said one.
The completed health forms are sent to local health departments to follow up with phone calls and text messages to check on compliance with the 14-day quarantine, which comes with its own set of rules and restrictions. The travelers should not go in public. They must stay away from others in the same residence, and control their own temperature among other requirements.
NYC’s “Test and Trace” program, run by the city’s Health + Hospitals, has made more than 200,000 phone calls and texts to disabled travelers since June 8, including 110,000 landing at airports, officials told The Post.
The contacts also knocked on 2,000 doors in search of people who did not answer the calls and texts, and found about half of them, they said Friday.
“New Yorkers we reach indicate that they are divorcing safely, and appreciate the resources we offer to support them,” such as food delivery or a free hotel room if needed, a spokesman said.
The city’s Sheriff’s Office has also stopped 2,197 private cars crossing the George Washington, Goethals and Bayonne bridges, the Outerbridge Crossing and the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, a small fraction of the cars each day in New York. Masks are also distributed.
If drivers say they have spent extended periods of time in a confined state, they must also complete a 14-day health and safety quarantine form, officials said.
The checkpoints and required forms have raised some hackles. Staten Island City Councilman Joseph Borelli called the rules “foolish.”
“This is an unconstitutional breach of authority. States are added and removed from the (restricted) list one week later. No reasonable person can plan their lives for Cuomo’s sake and the Blasio’s despair, ‘he grasped.
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