NY Bars Shut Down For Social Distancing Violations: Cuomo

LONG ISLAND, NY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday continued to lash out at bar owners across the state, including on Long Island, for refusing to comply with social distancing guidelines — adding the establishments were never supposed to open in the first place.

Four bars, including one in Suffolk County, lost their licenses, he said.

Cuomo said Monday that if violations and a lack of compliance persist, he will roll back the reopening plan and close bars and restaurants again. On Tuesday, he said there is a disconnect.

"We never authorized bars to reopen," Cuomo said. "New York does not allow bars to operate. Bars are congregations of people milling around. That is exactly what we are trying to avoid."

Most states have not allowed bars to operate, he said, adding the issue is New York bar and restaurant licenses are not separate, as they are in many other states.

"We said outdoor dining was allowed and facilitated that to help restaurants," Cuomo said. "Outdoor dining is not operating a bar. The word is 'dining.' You don't dine when you go to a restaurant to drink. That is drinking and would have been outside drinking. We didn't authorize that."

Cuomo said he understands bar owners are under "terrific pressure and took outdoor dining as an opportunity to do outdoor drinking but that's not what these regulations intended."

Local governments need to step up to enforce violations, Cuomo said.

The New York State Liquor Authority has 30 investigators statewide and 12 of those are downstate; local police need to help with enforcement, he said.

"We are quite serious about this," Cuomo said.

So far, the SLA has suspended the licenses of four bars, one in Suffolk and three in Queens. In Suffolk, Secrets Gentlemen's Club in Deer Park will have its license suspended, as will the Brik Bar and M.I.A. in Astoria and Maspeth Pizzeria in Maspeth, he said.

"They can't operate," Cuomo said. "We're sorry it's come to this but this is a dangerous situation."

The SLA has suspended 27 licenses statewide so far, with 410 charges against establishments, he said.

"When you go to out to dinner, you sit at a table and eat," Cuomo said. "You are socially distanced. Bars and drinking is totally different. It's just a large congregation of people walking around and standing with a beverage. That was never allowed."

The data shows coronavirus is spread in parts, particularly by young people, Cuomo said.

Cuomo also spoke about New York being the first state to pass a mask order and urged a national mandate.

"If there were a national mask order we would save 40,000 lives," he said. "I am still repulsed, frankly, by the federal governments failure to do a mask order."

Cuomo also announced Tuesday that 10 states were added to the travel quarantine list; people flying into New York from those states must fill out a State Department of Health travel form or risk a $2,000 fine. The new states include Alaska, Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Virginia, and Washington. Minnesota came off the list, he said.

COVID-19, he said, is increasing in 41 states across the country; 31 states are now on the quarantine list. "Our future is in their hands," Cuomo said.

On Tuesday, 724 were hospitalized statewide with coronavirus and only two people died; the lowest number the state has seen and a "significant milestone," he said.