By Hanna Park
(NEW YORK) Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that New York's statewide curfew for bars and restaurants will end next month for both indoor and outdoor dining areas.
Here is a list of the following restrictions that will be lifted, per WNBC.
- Starting Monday: Regular bar seating will return to New York City. Catered events can also resume at individual homes if coronavirus protocols are in place.
- May 15: Outdoor dining 12 a.m. curfew for bars and restaurants will end.
- May 17: 1 a.m. curfew will end for catered events where attendees have provided proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test.
- May 31: Indoor dining 12 a.m. curfew for bars and restaurants will end, along with the curfew for all catered events.
"Everything we've been doing is working - all the arrows are pointing in the right direction, and now we're able to increase economic activity even more," the governor said Wednesday.
"Lifting these restrictions for restaurants, bars and catering companies will allow these businesses that have been devastated by the pandemic to begin to recover as we return to a new normal in a post-pandemic world,” Cuomo added.
The move will be the state’s first repeal of any COVID-19 executive orders since voting to strip Cuomo of his pandemic emergency powers last month.
"To be clear: we will only be able to maintain this progress if everyone gets the COVID vaccine," Cuomo said. "It is the weapon that will end the war and we need everyone to take it. Otherwise, we risk going backward."