Cuomo announces NYC indoor dining will FINALLY be able to start again but not until Valentine's Day and only at 25% capacity - as 'heartbroken' restaurants ask why they have to wait another two weeks

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo finally announced on Friday that indoor dining in New York City will resume on Valentine's Day - two months after he banned it - but only at a 25% capacity.  

After months of campaigning from the industry and after being slammed with multiple lawsuits, Cuomo said on Friday morning that restaurant owners will be able to start welcoming diners back because the test positivity rate in the city had dropped to 4.9%. 

On Long Island, it is 6.51% but restaurants there can have diners at a 50% capacity. 

Restaurant owners in New York City have to wait another two weeks and say they are 'heartbroken' about the delay. 

When asked why the capacity wasn't greater, Cuomo said: '25% is better than zero. If the numbers get better, that number will go up.' 

He says that the two week delay is necessary to 'stamp out the virus even further' and 'give restaurants ample notice to begin preparing for a reopening.'  

Cuomo announced on Friday that restaurants in New York City can resume indoor dining on February 14 at a capacity of 25%. He is also allowing weddings of 150 guests from March 15 if everyone is vaccinated. Cuomo tried to joke on Friday that people should become engaged on Valentine's Day and married on March 15

Since December 14, diners in New York City have had to resort to sitting outside 

In December, Cuomo ended all indoor dining in NYC just as the holiday season approached and temperatures plummeted. He said it was because the city is so densely populated and blamed the rT rate of COVID but gave no data for weeks on what the rT rate actually was.

He also allowed indoor dining to continue in other parts of the state where the virus was a much bigger problem. As a result, restaurants sued. Some banded together to file lawsuits while others were still preparing theirs when he made the reopening announcement on Friday. 

On Friday, the statewide test positivity rate was 4.65% - the lowest since December 11 - when he announced the closure. The infection numbers in New York City have for months been among the lowest in the state. 

Cuomo also announced on Friday that weddings of 150 guests can happen again starting March 15, so long as everyone in attendance has tested negative.

'It's just a good idea. Get engaged on Valentine's Day when the restaurants reopen and March 15 - you can have the wedding,' he joked at his press conference on Friday. 

CALLS FOR RESTAURANT WORKERS TO GET THE VACCINE 

Some are calling for Gov. Cuomo to put restaurant and bar workers to the front of the line for the vaccine since they interact with the public. 

When filling out the NY state questionnaire for vaccine eligibility, people who say they interact with the public are getting vaccines before others. 

With restaurants reopening as new variants of COVID-19 spread, some say they should get priority. 

'Perfect timing! Restaurant workers in NYC aren't eligible for vaccines and there are now multiple more-contagious COVID variants floating around. But you know what else will be in the air? Love,' one person said. 

NY is still vaccinating people over the age of 65 and hospital workers. 

No one else has been able to get the vaccine yet. 

On Thursday, the test positivity rate in Manhattan was just 2.6% In Staten Island, it was 5.2% and in Brooklyn, it was 4.3%. In the Bronx, it was 5.5% and in Queens, it as 5%. The seven day average that Cuomo gave on Friday is higher.  

By contrast, on Long Island, restaurants can operate at a higher capacity and it has been that way for months. It has the highest test positivity rate of anywhere in the state.

In Orange County and Rockland County, areas just outside New York with large Orthodox Jewish communities, it is 6.7% and 6.5%. In Suffolk County, the Hamptons, it is 5.7%. 

Restaurant owners have repeatedly asked for an explanation and been ignored. 

On Friday, the NYC Hospitality Alliance said the announcement, while good, did no go far enough. 

'It’s good news that Governor Cuomo heard the voice of New York City’s struggling restaurant industry and is lifting the ban on indoor dining, similar to other major cities that reopened in recent weeks.

'However, restaurants are broken hearted that they need to wait two weeks until Valentine’s Day to open at only 25% occupancy in the city, while permitting 50% occupancy in dining rooms around the rest of the state where infections and hospitalization rates from COVID-19 are higher. 

'Restaurants in the city are ready to safely open now. Unfortunately, once again the state’s standards are being applied inequitably in the five boroughs without a transparent and data-driven system for further reopening the city’s restaurant economy. 

'These actions raise legal and moral concerns and extend unique economic challenges on the city’s battered restaurants and bars, which shed more than 140,000 jobs over the past year due to the pandemic and related restrictions,' Andrew Rigie told DailyMail.com.

On Thursday, before his decision, Rocco Sacramento, the owner of Trattoria L’Incontro in Astoria, Queens, told The New York Post: 'The restaurants are packed in Nassau and I feel like I’m going to f****** shoot myself! Are you f****** kidding me?!' 

Last month, after Cuomo allowed every other restaurant in the state to reopen, the New York City Hospitality Alliance told DailyMail.com: 'The continuation of the indoor dining ban in New York City is divorced from any of the data and criteria the State has articulated and must be ended now'. 

Cuomo decided on December 14 that New York City restaurants all had to cease indoor dining immediately. It forced hundreds of restaurants to lay off staff and many went out of business as a result. 

Others closed for the season, certain that it would not be worth their while to run during winter while the prospects of luring business were so low. 

Those who did persevere were forced to come up with expensive outdoor seating options which had heaters and sometimes blankets to keep diners warm. 

Even then, they were told to comply with difficult rules set by the State Liquor Authority. 

Many protested and demanded to know why Cuomo was holding the city 'hostage'. 

A protest in Times Square on December 15, a day after restaurants had to cease indoor dining 

Some claimed he was deliberately bankrupting the city to get a larger federal bailout from Washington DC. They likened his actions to extortion. 

Friday's announcement comes after a brutal 24 hours for Cuomo and his administration during which they admitted undercounting the number of nursing home deaths by 43%. 

Their admission came hours after Attorney General Letitia Adams released a damning report saying the undercount might be as much as 50%. 

The true number is not 8,000 - as previously reported - but some 12,700. 

They defended it by saying they only ever counted people who died in nursing homes and that the 4,000 or so additional deaths were counted as hospital deaths. 

While the state's total death toll remains the same, it means almost a third were from nursing home deaths. 

Cuomo has been widely panned for a March 25 directive that sent some 6,000 COVID-infected patients back into nursing homes to free up hospital beds. 

Now, Republicans are demanding that his office turn over all of their data nursing home deaths. 

Steve Scalise said on Thursday that Cuomo was guilty of an 'outrageous cover-up.'