Cuomo allows big weddings in March | Best Stories

We weren’t going to get the full vaccine for many, many months. In New York, we want to use testing as a key to reopening events and we tested it in Buffalo and we want to start expanding it, he said.

Despite the good news, the governor has warned that things can change at any time, noting that if vaccinations continue, there are concerns about highly contagious strains of COVID and the ever-rising death toll.

Romantic diners are also in luck as New York restaurants can once again serve customers indoors starting on Valentine’s Day.

Amid a post-holiday drop in COVID cases and hospitalizations, the governor said Big Apple restaurants will be allowed to reopen with a strict 25% capacity limit as long as the number continues to drop.

Twenty-five percent is better than zero, and that’s where we are now, Cuomo said during an Albany press briefing. If hell develops and the sky is falling and a new variant blows up on the stage, then there is the opposite problem.

The governor noted that New York’s positivity rate had fallen from a high of 7.1% on Jan.5 to just under 5% on Jan.28, a good indicator the city had rounded a curve.

All models predict that number will continue to decline, he said.

We make decisions based on facts, and based on the numbers New York’s numbers are down, he said in a briefing in Albany. But the facts are changing. It seems inconsistent. We like to think that a fact is always a fact. No, the facts are changing. COVID facts change dramatically, and they change often.

If there are facts and the facts change, we will have a different situation, he said.

Cuomo banned indoor dining in all five boroughs in December as COVID-19 cases rose. Distressed restaurants have been forced to offer take-out or outside tables throughout the holiday season. The closure follows a brief two-month reprieve that saw dining rooms open at 25% capacity in the fall.

The announcement was a quick turnaround for the governor, who days earlier said he had no plans to revoke the current ban on serving customers indoors.

As restaurants in the upstate remain capped at 50% capacity, the governor said earlier in the week he was not ready to lift the 10 p.m. curfew that applies in statewide to establishments that serve alcohol, arguing that nighttime revelry could become a problem.

It’s something we’ve been looking for, but not at the moment, he said on Wednesday. When you keep restaurants open late it tends to be more of a problem, get more crowded, drink more.

Earl Greer, owner of Amsterdam’s Hi-Life bar and restaurant and of West 83rd Street since 1991, had already circled Valentine’s Day on his calendar before Cuomos’ announcement.

We’re happy to have food inside, said Greer. I think Valentine’s Day may have been chosen because it’s a nice day to open. I think if it’s safe, lets open a week earlier than that. Make the most of it. I was going to have a jazz saxophonist on the street. The theme will be love is in the air and some love will be happening on the inside now too.

La Sirene owner Benjamin Cosso, 32, would like Cuomo to postpone the target date by a few weeks. He said his French bistro on the corner of Amsterdam Ave. and W. 80th Street, could certainly use the business.

Every improvement is good, Cosso said. We wish it was sooner than that. That’s good, it happened on Valentine’s Day. We hope for a crowd.

Melissa Fleischut, president and CEO of the New York State Restaurant Association, applauded the move, but said more needed to be done to help business owners who have faced nearly a year of financial hardship.

While these are small steps towards reopening the economy, allowing closed businesses to welcome customers again is nonetheless a step in the right direction, she said. We will continue to do our part to ensure the safety of our employees and customers so that we can continue to move forward towards a full reopening as quickly as possible.