Young revelers pack Washington Square Park in Manhattan AGAIN

Large crowds of young revelers have again gathered in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park to party, after Governor Andrew Cuomo slammed nearby New York University for failing to crack down on the gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic.

Photos and video obtained by DailyMail.com show throngs of hundreds dancing, singing and twerking in the lower Manhattan park on Friday night, with few wearing masks or observing social distancing.

It follows crowded festivities in the park over Labor Day weekend, which drew condemnation from Cuomo, who said: ‘Frankly, NYU security didn’t do anything about it. The local police didn’t do anything about it.’

On Friday night, NYPD officers from the 6th Precinct did respond to the park, the images show, but it’s unclear what actions they took. Spokespersons for NYU and the NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday morning.

It follows large gatherings at the park last weekend that drew harsh criticism from Cuomo at a press conference on Tuesday.

‘You have NYU students coming from other countries. You have a large gathering, many people without masks, it went on for hours, what do you think is going to happen?’ Cuomo said, raising fears that such gatherings could spread COVID-19. 

It was a shocking start to the NYU school year, which resumed classes last week. So far, at least 20 students have been suspended for violating COVID-19 safety guidelines. 

So far 108 colleges across the country have reported more than 100 cases each since reopening their doors for the fall semester.

In New York schools seeing outbreaks include SUNY Oneonta, Cornell University, University at Buffalo, Hofstra University, SUNY Oswego, Colgate University and SUNY Fredonia.

‘You know we’re closing colleges all across this state, what do you think is going to happen?’ Cuomo threatened. 

‘You say we’re New York tough – that is not tough by the NYU administrators who as soon as they heard about it should have said stop it and sent NYU security to break it down,’ Cuomo said. 

‘It’s not tough by New York City enforcement, they saw a large gathering and violated social distancing,’ he added.

NYU previously said it is investigating last weekend’s party and ‘any students who have violated our expectations will be subject to disciplinary action’.

At Cuomo’s press conference, one reporter pointed out that crowds of Black Lives Matter protesters gathered at the park earlier this summer and it didn’t lead to an outbreak.

‘Well just because you get lucky once, doesn’t mean you’re going to get lucky twice,’ Cuomo responded. 

‘And those protests didn’t have a high number of people from out of state coming from states with a high infection rate from an epidemiological point of view,’ the governor said.

‘That is a major difference. One out of state person who is infected can be a super spreader. Just takes one. The colleges, NYU, how many countries and states are those students coming from? Those are not just Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx,’ he added.

Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa said testing was amped up during protests to catch infections early and says outbreaks among colleges have been linked to students from states with high infection rates. 

Cuomo announced any school that goes over 100 COVID-19 cases must to report it to the state Department of Health immediately and the school must be closed down to do remote learning if it crosses that threshold.

In the press conference Cuomo threw plenty of jabs towards Mayor Bill De Blasio including blaming him for the city’s inability to restart indoor dining due to reckless city bars and college parties.

Cuomo says indoor dining can’t start until City Hall is able to ensure compliance with social distancing and mask wearing. He said opening eateries would require double the current number of businesses to be inspected.

‘If we have the enforcement mechanism in place, then we can talk about opening restaurants,’ Cuomo said.

‘It would be negligent and reckless to open indoor dining, knowing that you have issues in upstate New York, knowing that compliance is going to be a problem,’ he added. 

Later in the week, Cuomo said that New York City restaurants would be able to open at 25 percent capacity starting September 30. 

Overall New York city has had 232,926 positive tests for the virus, and 19,116 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 4,623 probable deaths.