Cuomo to sign executive order allowing businesses to deny entry to customers without masks

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said Thursday he will sign an executive order allowing private businesses to deny entry to customers who are not wearing face coverings. 

“We made them mandatory in public settings, public transportation etc., but when we’re talking about reopening stores and places of business, we’re giving the store owners the right to say, ‘If you’re not wearing a mask, you can’t come in,’” Cuomo said during his daily press briefing. 

Store owners have a right to protect themselves and other patrons, he said. 

“You don’t want to wear a mask? Fine, but you don’t have a right to then go into that store if that store owner doesn’t want you to,” the governor added. 

He also doubled down on his message that the masks are a helpful tool at mitigating the spread of the virus, calling them “deceptively effective.”

“The masks work, they work,” he said. “And we have to culturalize the masks, we have to customize the masks for New York, to get New Yorkers to wear them.” 

He said the city has delivered more than 8 million masks across the city to public housing, food banks, churches and homeless shelters. An additional 1 million masks will be delivered to the hardest hit neighborhoods in the city on Thursday.