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What there is to know
- A state Supreme Court judge has ruled in favor of a number of Erie County restaurants that have sued the state for their Orange Cluster Zone designation; the judge granted a preliminary injunction
- Gov. Lawyer Andrew Cuomo says the state is reviewing the decision, which he strongly disagrees with; in the meantime, it allows restaurants in the orange zone to operate under the rules of the yellow zone
- As of Cuomo’s latest update, there are seven Orange Cluster Zone areas in the state, including parts of Westchester County and New York City, where indoor dining is prohibited regardless of the rules. of the cluster.
New York temporarily approved indoor dining in Orange Zones after a state Supreme Court ruling this week in favor of some Erie County restaurants that had filed a lawsuit over the restriction, a Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s legal counsel said Thursday.
This means that parts of Westchester County that were subject to these mid-level restrictions since mid-December can resume dining indoors – at least temporarily. Staten Island areas have also been subject to the Orange Zone rules since that time, but Cuomo has banned indoor dining throughout New York City, regardless of its cluster zone program. It’s unclear how the state’s decision would affect this.
Up to four people per table can now dine indoors in seven so-called “orange zones” located in counties with some of the highest rates of COVID-19 cases or hospitalizations: including County of Monroe in the Finger Lakes.
A number of restaurants across the state, including many in New York City, had filed a lawsuit over the indoor eating ban, but state Supreme Court Judge Henry Nowak has granted a preliminary injunction for its application in the Erie case on Wednesday.
According to Cuomo’s cluster zone rules, the orange zones – the second most restricted in level three – completely prohibit indoor dining and limit the outdoors to four people per table. Schools also all travel remotely unless they are testing; high-risk non-essential businesses are closing and gatherings are limited to a maximum of 10 people.
In his ruling, Nowak ruled that restaurants in Erie County that were in orange zone areas could revert to the indoor dining rules that apply to yellow areas, which allow dinner, but only with four people maximum per table.
Nowak said he couldn’t “find evidence that the state had a rational basis for designating parts of Erie County as an orange zone” and that restaurants would suffer “irreparable harm” without the injunction.
According to Cuomo’s latest guidelines, which were last updated in mid-December, orange zone restrictions apply to areas that have experienced a positivity rate of 4% or more for 10 consecutive days. and the area has reached 85% of its hospital capacity or the Department of Health determines that the region has an excessively high hospital admissions rate.
Erie County has a 6.3% mobile positivity rate on Thursday. The governor’s website doesn’t break down hospitalization data by county, but state data shows that no region in the state has reached 85% of hospital capacity. This would trigger more aggressive shutdown measures. As of Thursday, western New York City in the Erie County area had 32% and 36% of available hospital beds and intensive care beds, respectively, based on a seven-day moving average.
Daily percentage of positive tests by New York region
Governor Andrew Cuomo divides the state into 10 regions for testing and tracks positivity rates to identify potential hot spots. Here is the latest monitoring data by region and for the five boroughs. For the latest county-wide statewide results, click here
It was not immediately clear whether the Health Ministry’s assessment was behind the Orange Zone restrictions. Erie County has confirmed nearly 50,000 total COVID cases to date, more than 69% of the 71,273 confirmed cases in the five counties that make up the western New York region since March.
Cuomo’s office says it is reviewing the decision. The parties will have to return to court to determine whether the injunction will become permanent.
In the meantime, Gibson has said the state will allow all Orange Zone restaurants to operate under the Yellow Zone rules “to ensure consistency and fairness.”
“We don’t agree with the court’s ruling and its impact on public health, as federal data from the CDC clearly shows that eating indoors increases the spread of COVID-19,” Gibson said. “Since the start of this pandemic, the state has acted on the basis of facts and advice from public health experts, and we will continue to do so.”
Since Cuomo’s last update, there are seven Orange Cluster Zone areas in the state, including the one in Erie County. Parts of Staten Island, Westchester County, Monroe County, Chemung County, Onondaga County, and Niagara County (also in the Western New York region) are classified as Orange Zones.
The NYC Hospitality Alliance, which represents restaurants in the city, among others, criticized Cuomo for the ongoing indoor dining ban in light of the ruling.
“The court’s preliminary ruling and the governor’s action to remove indoor dining restrictions in all ‘orange zones’ make the indoor dining ban in New York City status of all the more outrageous and destructive for thousands of restaurants in all five boroughs, especially when our infection and hospitalization rates are lower than most counties in the state where indoor dining is allowed at 50% occupancy, “said its executive director, Andrew Rigie, and his lawyer, Robert Bookman, on Thursday.
“The continuation of the indoor eating ban in New York is independent of any data and criteria the state has set out and must be completed now,” they said.
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