(WBEN) - All Restaurants, Bars, Gyms, Movie Theaters will close across New York State beginning at 8:00 Monday night.
Governor Andrew Cuomo made the announcement Monday morning. New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut have all agreed to the common set of rules. The rules will be in place for the immediate future, until further notice. All three states are discouraging non-essential travel between 8:00PM and 5:00AM.
Restaurants will be allowed to have customers order take-out. Bars and restaurants will be provided a waiver for carry-out alcohol. These measures will all take effect at 8:00 tonight.
Jim's Steakout, a popular late-late-night spot throughout Western New York, said that they will be closing at midnight for the forseeable future.
"This is uncharted territory," he said. "Ity's not like there's something in play where if this pandemic happens that we're going to do X, Y, Z for employees. We're going to have to take this day-by-day."
State-run Casinos are also included in the order, but that does not include the Seneca casinos operating in Western New York, which the state does not have jurisdiction over. Earlier Monday, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown told WBEN's Brian Mazurowski that the city did have options to close the Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino if "worst came to worst."
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RESTAURANTS, BARS CLOSED
Bars, restaurants, movie theaters and casinos are being shut down at 8 p.m. Monday throughout New York, New Jersey and Connecticut because of the coronavirus, the states' governors said.
The governors said restaurants and bars will move to take-out and delivery services only. New York is changing its rules to allow bars, restaurants and distilleries to sell their products off premises, Cuomo said.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he is "strongly encouraging" nonessential businesses to close in New York after 8 p.m.
"Our primary goal right now is to slow the spread of this virus so that the wave of new infections doesn't crash our health care system, and everyone agrees social distancing is the best way to do that," Cuomo said.
The three states also will limit social gatherings to 50 people, effective 8 p.m. Monday.
Cuomo directed nonessential state employees to work from home starting Tuesday and said local governments should follow suit.
The virus that has stricken tens of thousands around the globe causes only mild symptoms for the majority of the people who become infected but can be deadly for some, especially older adults and people with certain health conditions such as respiratory illness.
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THE NUMBERS
Cuomo said a seventh person has died in New York after contracting the coronavirus as the number of cases statewide climbed toward 1,000.
The state had 950 confirmed cases Monday morning, with about half of them in New York City. The metropolitan region continues to post the lion's share of confirmed cases.
The seventh death was on Long Island's Suffolk County. There have been five deaths in New York City and one in suburban Rockland County.
New York City's jail system said one of its employees died from the disease Sunday night at a hospital. Department of Correction officials said the 56-year-old employee, a civilian investigator, apparently had a pre-existing health condition. Jail union spokesman Michael Skelly said the man had been out of work for several weeks and that it wasn't clear when he was exposed to the virus.
Cuomo said nearly 160 people were hospitalized.
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SCHOOL'S OUT
Cuomo said Monday that all schools in New York state will temporarily close for at least two weeks.
Schools in New York City and most other districts were already closed Monday. Cuomo administration officials say they are closing the remaining 14% by Wednesday.
"If in two weeks, miraculously, everything is fine, I'll reopen every school in New York in two weeks," Cuomo said.
The city's nearly 1,800 public schools will be closed until at least until April 20, the end of spring break, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Sunday.
As the orders went into effect, parents scrambled to balance child care and professional obligations.
"We're trying to figure it out with the knowledge that this is going to be a real, two-week thing," at least, said Andrea Ash, a parent in Massapequa, on Long Island. "It's not like a snow day."
Ash tried to catch up at midday Monday on emails from her job as an accountant for a film and TV production company as her 9-year-old daughter painted after taking some online classes. She planned to do reading work with her daughter in the afternoon.
"And then, when my husband gets home, I'm going to have to actually do some accounting," said Ash, whose husband works at a pharmaceutical distribution warehouse.
Ash said she was trying to keep it together with meditation, prayer and "lots of coffee."
The mayor said that teachers would receive training for online learning this week and that "learning centers" would be set up for the children of essential medical workers.
De Blasio had resisted closing the school system in part because many of its 1.1 million pupils rely on school meals. Free "grab and go" breakfasts and lunches will be distributed to children at school buildings starting Monday, he said.
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WEST POINT
The U.S. Military Academy has delayed the return of cadets from spring break because of the outbreak.
Cadets had been scheduled to return to West Point on Sunday. But academy officials delayed return until at least March 29. Cadets were told to remain in contact with their chain of command for instructions on returning to the academy.
The historic academy along the Hudson River was temporarily closed to visitors Friday.
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HOSPITAL BEDS
De Blasio said New York City is in a "race against time" to add more than 8,000 hospital beds in the coming weeks to help meet the predicted spike in coronavirus patients.
The beds will come from a shuttered hospital, a yet-to-open nursing home and other facilities around the city. The bed-creation plan also includes canceling elective surgeries and discharging patients more rapidly when they are medically sound.
"We're going to need massive medical capacity on a scale we've never seen in the history of New York City before," de Blasio said at an afternoon news conference.
The city effort dovetails with efforts by the state to come up with a list of dorms, former nursing homes and other facilities that could be retrofitted into medical centers with the goal of creating an additional 9,000 beds statewide.
De Blasio and Cuomo, both Democrats, say they need more help from the federal government. Cuomo wants the Army Corps of Engineers to be mobilized to equip facilities like military bases or college dorms to serve as temporary medical centers. He said failing to act would be "a tragedy."
"You overwhelm the hospitals. You have people on gurneys in hallways," Cuomo said at a news conference. "That is what is going to happen now if we do nothing."
New York state has about 53,000 regular hospital beds and 3,000 intensive care beds.
