NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- New York state will lift some COVID-19 restrictions in the coming days amid a decline in its infection rate, but New York City's indoor dining ban will not be one of them, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday.
The state's positivity rate has fallen from its high point of 7.94 percent at the beginning of January to 5.47 percent — an indication that its holiday spike is subsiding, Cuomo said at a news briefing Monday afternoon.
With health experts projecting that its infection rate will continue to decline, New York will "start making adjustments" to its COVID-19 restrictions, he said.
"I think we're at a new place now, and we can start to adjust that valve, and start to open up more economic activity, and reduce some of the restrictions, and reduce some of the, what we call microcluster zones, orange zones, et cetera," he said.
"And we're going to be talking more about that in the coming days," he added, without providing specifics.
The easing of restrictions will not, however, include the resumption of indoor dining in New York City, which is still prohibited, Cuomo noted.
"We're focusing now on the microcluster zones… which are yellow zones, orange zones," he said. "The indoor dining in New York City is a New York City-specific condition and we're not, at this point, contemplating any changes."
New York state reported 167 new COVID-19-related fatalities on Monday, the governor said at his briefing.
As of Sunday night, 8,730 New Yorkers were hospitalized with the virus, up by 117 from Saturday.
Of the 8,730 hospitalized New Yorkers, 1,522 were in intensive care and 1,005 were on ventilators, he noted.
