State officials handed out summonses to 27 establishments for failing to follow coronavirus mitigation regulations on Sunday night, mainly in New York City and none on Long Island, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Monday.
Nassau and Suffolk counties have improved enforcement of regulations such as wearing masks and limiting crowds, in contrast to New York City, where enforcement continues to be a problem, Cuomo said.
Governments and police upstate have also done a better job of enforcing the laws, he said.
“Many of the local governments in upstate New York are more aggressively enforcing the rules,” Cuomo said in a conference call with reporters. “We are seeing greater compliance by the local governments outside of New York City. That’s why we are focusing on New York City” and sending in state troopers and State Liquor Authority agents to supplement local efforts.”
He added: “Even Nassau and Suffolk, by the way, (are) doing a better job than they had been doing. They have been more rigorous. And we had no violations in Nassau and Suffolk yesterday, last night … We did the visits last night on Nassau and Suffolk, but we didn’t have any violations. So that makes the point. The violations were in New York City.”
Authorities issued 53 summonses on Saturday and 52 on Friday, Cuomo said. He noted that numbers can be expected to drop on a Sunday, a less busy night at bars and restaurants.
He also said the state has suspended the licenses of a total of 40 establishments, including 10 since Friday. One of those, announced last week, was the Secrets Gentlemen’s Club in Deer Park
Most of the businesses causing the problems are populated with young people out partying and failing to follow social distancing and other directives, Cuomo said. Last week, he showed slides of crowds of partyers outside bars and restaurants in locations such as Astoria and the Lower East Side. He has also shown photographs of crowds gathered on the beach on Fire Island for parties.
Cuomo said most bars and restaurants have cooperated with the regulations aimed at curbing the spread of the virus.
“Most of the bars and restaurants have been great,” he said. “It’s always the same. It’s a handful of bad actors who ruin it for everyone.”
He noted that organizations representing the businesses have been supportive of the crackdown, since the vast majority are obeying the rules.
“I want the establishments to know that we will continue to diligently enforce the law,” he said.
The other factor threatening New York’s success at containing the virus is travelers coming from the growing number of states with high levels of COVID-19 infection, Cuomo said.
“We are a destination, New York. People come here, they come here to do business, they fly through here,” he said. “We won’t be out of the woods totally on COVID until COVID is contained all across the country, if not globally. You can screen international visitors but at a minimum you need to get it under control in this country before we can really take a full deep breath.”
Despite the violations locally, coronavirus indicators continued to be good across the state, with about a 1% positive level in testing performed on Sunday, Cuomo said. Some 608 people were confirmed positive out of about 57,000 tested.
Eleven New Yorkers died of coronavirus-related causes on Sunday, he said.
In Nassau, one person died of the virus Sunday, said County Executive Laura Curran in a statement Monday.
Curran said it was the county’s first death from the virus in nine days and is a “sad reminder that despite the tremendous sacrifice and discipline our residents, frontline workers and first responders have demonstrated in crushing the curve, we are still not yet out of the woods.”
There were also eleven additional residents hospitalized in Nassau on Sunday due to coronavirus, for a total of 48, Curran said. Seven patients remain in intensive care units with 57 new positive cases, accounting for approximately 1.4% percent of all tests in Nassau, she said.
“We will continue to monitor and track the path of new infections while ensuring proper enforcement of public health laws.”
With Scott Eidler
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