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News
New York bars to shut at 10pm
Bars in New York must close at 10pm from tomorrow (13 November) under new measures to stem the spread of Covid-19 across the city.
Bars in New York city must close between 10pm and 5am
Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York, announced on Wednesday (11 November) that bars, restaurants and other State Liquor Authority licensed establishments will be required to close from 10pm until 5am daily.
Restaurants will still be allowed to offer curbside pickup options for food orders, but will not be permitted to serve alcohol.
Cuomo said: “We’re taking several actions today. If you look at where the cases are coming from, if you do the contact tracing, you’ll see they’re coming from three main areas and we’re going to act on those three areas.
“First, is bars and restaurants. We are going to have a requirement that statewide SLA, State Liquor Authority, licensed establishments close at 10 o’clock. What is a state licensed facility? It is a bar, it’s a restaurant overwhelmingly, is the majority of it. Bowling alley with a liquor license, but it’s about bars and restaurants. That’s one of the main spreaders of Covid.
“In theory, indoor dining, outdoor dining, you’re at a table. You only take down the mask to eat or drink, but what happens is that setting is very hard to police, it’s very hard for people to maintain the discipline of sitting there eating and drinking and chatting and having a good time and laughing and keeping a mask on.
“Bars and restaurants are one of the identified spreaders. They will close at 10 o’clock. A restaurant can do curbside food-only pickup after 10 o’clock, but food only pick up after 10 o’clock.”
The governor also announced measures targeting gyms and private events, including limiting gatherings at private residences to no more than 10 people.
Despite claims made by Cuomo that the new measures were “following the science”, on-trade organisation NYC Hospitality Alliance has called on the New York governor to publish the contact tracing data to back up the new restrictions.
In a statement, the NYC Hospitality Alliance said: “These new restrictions should be publicly justified with contact tracing data because they will make it even more difficult for these small businesses to survive. We demand that our elected leaders provide financial support to our city’s restaurants and bars before they permanently shutter and put tens of thousands of New Yorkers out of work.”