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During a COVID-19 news briefing on Friday, July 24 in Albany, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that 37 summonses were dished out by the State Liquor Authority and State Police for violations of the state’s reopening rules as New York cracks down on large gatherings.
The summonses come following a “significant” rise in COVID-19 cases in New Yorkers in their 20s.
“One of the things we’re watching is the bar and restaurant violations, and the congregations in front of bars and restaurants,” Cuomo said. “We believe it’s connected to the number of young people getting COVID … (the infection rate) went from 9 (percent) to 13 (percent), so we are watching that.”
Cuomo said that the SLA and New York State Police specifically were targeting downstate, specifically noting that summonses were issued in Manhattan, Long Island, Queens, Astoria, Rockville Centre, Baldwin, Jackson Heights, and Lower East Side.
Since the crackdown, more than two dozen liquor licenses have been suspended in New York, and hundreds of charges have been levied against bar and restaurant proprietors.
“We’re making progress, but we have to protect our progress,” Cuomo said. “We don’t want a second wave or a ricochet of the virus coming back.
“We don’t want to see an increase from young people congregating,” he added. “We went up the mountain, then we went down the mountain. New Yorkers flattened the curve, but we don’t want to do it again. Let’s be one and done.”
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