Coronavirus US: New York positivity rate below 1% after 31 days

New York state’s COVID-19 positivity rate remained below one percent for 31 days straight, the governor has proudly announced – but there are still no plans to help out struggling restaurants.

Sunday’s COVID-19 test results were 0.88 percent positive and have remained below one percent for an entire month – a major victory for a state that was once the epicenter of pandemic in the US.

But restaurateurs fear their businesses could go under amid the pandemic if they can’t open fully or without a relief package. 

A new shocking report claims that 63.6 percent of all restaurants in the state could permanently close by the end of the year without a comprehensive relief package.

Just 36.4 percent of restaurants said they were likely to remain open.

Of the 63.6 percent that said they could close in 2020, 54.8 percent said they will close before November, the restaurant association found. 

 Indoor dining is still banned in NYC, but allowed with severe restrictions in other parts of state

New York state reported 520 new cases of virus on Sunday, bringing the total number of infections to 440,021 and total hospitalizations to 413.

Two deaths were also recorded Sunday, bringing the state’s death toll to 25,361. 

Gov. Andrew Cuomo praised New Yorkers for keeping the infection rate down and slowly stabilizing the state.

‘Thanks to the hard work of New Yorkers, our state has now gone a full month with our COVID infection rate remaining below one percent,’ he said in a press release Monday.

‘Our numbers have continued to remain stable even as we reach new milestones in our phased, data-driven reopening,’ he added.

He urged New Yorkers to ‘remain smart’ during the close of Labor Day weekend ‘so we can continue to celebrate out progress.’

‘It took the work of all of us to get here, and to protect this progress we will need to all continue to wash our hands, wear our masks, remain socially distant and above all, stay New York tough,’ Cuomo said.

The State Liquor Authority and State Police Task Force continued its crack down on restaurants and bars, visiting 1,064 establishments in New York City and Long Island on Saturday, where they discovered seven businesses were not in compliance with state requirements.

 But the positive news on infection rates came as restaurant owners painted a grim picture of their future.

The New York State Restaurant Association (NYSRA) surveyed 1,042 restaurateurs across the state in the last week of August and discovered the restaurant industry is in dire need of state of federal financial help, according to Fox5. 

‘It is painfully clear that without financial assistance, the restaurant industry in New York state could collapse. These recent survey results illustrate just how dire the financial situation has become for most restaurants, and it shows how critical it is that elected officials understand the urgency of the situation,’ Melissa Fleischut, the association president and CEO said in a statement.

The NYSRA say commercial rent relief, paid business interruption insurance claims and allowing for or increasing indoor dining are answers to help businesses stay on their feet. 

A previous NYSRA survey in August found that 89.7 percent of New York restaurant owners said it will be very or somewhat likely that their establishments will be profitable in the next six months.

The association also reported that in three weeks in March, restaurants lost $1.9billion sales. 

In April, the organization found that 527,000 jobs in the restaurant industry in New York had been furloughed or laid off since the beginning of March. 

New York is in Phase four of reopening, which allows zoos, botanical gradens, museums and gyms to reopen.

But indoor dining is still closed in New York City with the governor concerned about restaurant compliance indoors, noting that the Big Apple has not performed well when it comes to monitoring bars.

Restaurants outside New York City are allowed to have indoor dining but at 50 percent capacity. Gatherings of more than 50 people, however, are prohibited. 

He said on Thursday he called on Speaker Johnson to potentially have 4,000 NYPD officers monitor indoor dining.

‘If New York City can say this many police, NYPD, can be put on a task force to monitor the compliance, that’s something that we can discuss,’ Cuomo said.

‘The city and the state are in constant dialogue. The sheriff’s office has done an amazing job, absolutely outstanding job with restaurant enforcement, with quarantine enforcement. The NYPD has a lot on its hands,’ Mayor Bill de Blasio said.  

‘Extremely frustrating. Restaurants seem to be left on the line to die,’ restaurant owner John Philips said to CBS2.

He expressed frustration that indoor dining is still banned in the Big Apple when its allowed in the rest of the state.

‘Gyms being open? I don’t know how much sense that makes to me,’ Philips added.