New York City restaurants can increase their indoor dining capacity to 35%, starting on Friday, February 26.
Governor Andrew Cuomo made the announcement during his press conference on Friday, a week after allowing in-house restaurants to return to the city (at 25% capacity), since closing in December 2020.
Indoor dining at 35% capacity now places the city on the same level as New Jersey, while in other parts of New York, such as Long Island and Westchester County, restaurants are currently hosting dinners at 50% capacity.
Restaurants are required to follow many safety precautions to reopen for internal customers. Experts, including the city’s chief public health advisor, Dr. Jay Varma, recommend that those interested in dining indoors limit the size of the group and also see if the establishment is following pandemic protocols, such as distance from tables.
The city’s restaurant trade group, NYC Hospitality Alliance, expects indoor meals to reach 50% capacity soon, noting that 140,000 jobs have been lost since the pandemic began.
Earlier this month, restaurant workers became eligible for vaccine appointments. Even so, some employees are anxious. “I wish [Cuomo] I would wait to see if our numbers would increase, which we won’t know for another three to seven days, “said Rebecca, a waitress and bartender at Carroll Gardens who spoke to Gothamist after the indoor restaurant reopened last weekend.” , with so many in the service industry and other eligible groups still struggling to get a vaccine appointment, he needs to slow down. “