New York Could Impose Further Limits on Indoor Dining As Soon As This Week

With COVID cases rising across many parts of New York could see further limits on indoor dining as soon as this week.

Governor Cuomo says he's closely monitoring hospitalization rates for regions, and if those rates don't stabilize, it could mean restaurants outside of New York City will see their capacity limits drop from the current 50% to 25%.

The Governor says the CDC has recently identified indoor dining as a "high risk activity."

"If after five days we haven't seen a stabilization in a region's hospital rate, we're going to clamp down on indoor dining. Five days, if the hospitalization rate doesn't stabilize in New York City, we're going to close indoor dining. We're now at 25 percent in New York City. In the rest of the state, any region where the hospitalization rate doesn't stabilize - they're now at 50 percent capacity indoor dining - we're going to go to 25 percent," the Governor says.

On top of this, if a region’s hospital capacity shows signs of reaching 90% capacity within three weeks, then the whole region will go on “PAUSE.”

Indoor dining in “red” and “orange” zones would continue to be prohibited, according to Spectrum News.

Cuts to restaurant capacity could mean the end for some of your favorite dining spots. Some Utica restaurants, like Ocean Blue, have made a proactive shift to take-out dining only. News10 reports in the Capital Region, 3 to 8 restaurants have already made the decision to close.

In September, a study by the New York State Restaurant Association found about two-thirds of restaurants may close by the end of the year.