Many restaurant workers have expressed concern about working indoors again before they can be vaccinated.
Photo: Scott Heins
Mondays are full of surprises. Here’s one: indoor dining will be allowed in New York on Friday, rather than on the previously announced date of Valentine’s Day, on Sunday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced today. Restaurants may only reopen at 25 percent for the time being, but ‘they have pointed out that they want to open a few days in advance so they can be ready for Valentine’s Day,’ Cuomo says of restaurant owners. “Get the staff targeted, get stock in the restaurants, and that’s a reasonable request.”
The decision sounds like it was motivated by restaurateurs and groups like the New York Hospitality Alliance. In a statement responding to Cuomo’s original announcement on January 25, Andrew Rigie, NYHA, said, “Restaurants are sad that they have to wait two weeks until Valentine’s Day to occupy only 25 percent.” (Indoor dining, as noted in the statement, was brought back to a large part of the state last month.)
Meanwhile, restaurant and bar workers are worried they may not be vaccinated before working in-house shifts. Restaurant workers wash was eligible for vaccination last week, but, as Cuomo himself said, the state’s vaccination program was hampered by the issues, and some weeks the state received 50,000 doses less than the 300,000 he expected. However, Cuomo noted last week that the federal government will soon increase supply by 20 percent.