NYC to allow some indoor dining starting on Valentine’s Day

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced Friday that indoor dining in New York City will be allowed to reopen at 25 percent capacity starting on Valentine’s Day, one of the busiest dining days for the city. 

Along with indoor dining, wedding receptions of up to 150 people will be allowed starting in March, provided guests get tested for the coronavirus and local health officials agree to the event, NBC New York reported.

This move comes after New York has started to see a slight decrease in cases.

The governor credited the ease of restrictions to the success of letting fans go to two Buffalo Bills home playoff games in January. The event had strict rules including masks, testing beforehand and contract tracing rules. A spike in cases was not seen after the games. 

Testing before events will be crucial to opening more places such as Broadway, the governor said. However, the ease of restrictions could be reversed at any moment if coronavirus cases begin to rise or new variants of the virus hit the city. 

New York City restaurants have taken a huge hit during the pandemic. The city originally closed indoor dining from March to September. It opened back up but then closed again in mid-December after the city saw a spike in cases after Thanksgiving. 

Cuomo said he won’t change the curfew time yet but will increase dining capacity if cases continue to decrease.