Governor Andrew Cuomo and Governor Phil Murphy announced that restaurants in New York City and the state of New Jersey will be permitted to increase indoor dining capacity to 50% starting March 19th. This will be the largest increase in restaurant capacity in NYC since the start of the pandemic.
Indoor dining has been capped at 35% capacity in NYC and NJ since February 26th. Cuomo had paused indoor dining in the city in December 2020 because of concerns about hospitalization rates after a surge in COVID cases following the winter holidays.
Cuomo previously announced that restaurants throughout the rest of New York state, which are currently operating at 50%, could expand to 75% indoor dining capacity starting March 19th.
"In New York State, our decisions are based on science and data and we are encouraged by the continued decline in infection and hospitalization rates," Cuomo said in a statement about the move. "We will continue to follow the science and react accordingly. If we keep the infections down and vaccinations up, we will continue to stay ahead in the footrace against this invisible enemy and reach the light at the end of the tunnel together."
Governor Murphy added, "In New Jersey, we will continue to move deliberately, responsibly and incrementally, guided by public health data. We feel confident in this step given the improving metrics we have seen over the last several weeks in both New Jersey and New York City, as well as the continued ramp up of our vaccination program. Our states will continue to work together to protect the health of as many residents as possible."
According to the latest city Department of Health data, NYC's seven-day average of positive COVID-19 tests is at 6.31%. The city reached an almost 10% positivity rate in early January, and has been slowly but steadily declining since.
However, on Wednesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed that two new COVID-19 variants were spreading increasingly around the five boroughs, and health officials said the new variant first identified in Manhattan is more infectious than the original strain of coronavirus. So far, health officials don't believe that this new variant strain causes more severe illness or reduces the effectiveness of vaccines, but it still poses a health threat merely by spreading faster.
The NYC Hospitality Alliance, which has been advocating for this increase in indoor dining capacity, said it was pleased with the move. "Cautiously and safely increasing indoor dining capacity at New York City restaurants to 50%, with an eye towards more occupancy, more vaccinations, and dedicated restaurant relief that’s on its way from the federal government gives our industry some optimism among all the doom and gloom of this past year," said Andrew Rigie, the Alliance’s executive director.
Some restaurant workers had expressed apprehension about the increases in capacity to Gothamist in February as indoor dining resumed, partially because they worried that the types of customers who wanted to eat indoors were largely comprised of people who didn't take the pandemic seriously.
