Restaurants on Long Island will be allowed to open their doors for on-premises dining Wednesday for the first time since March 16, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo shut them down as part of a statewide effort to combat the spread of the coronavirus in New York.
The Long Island region is on track to enter Phase Three of the New York Forward reopening plan on Wednesday.
Personal care businesses and services are also able to reopen in Phase Three. These include nail salons, waxing, tanning, tattoo and piercing facilities, spas and massage parlors. Hair salons and barbershops were allowed to reopen on June 10, when the region entered Phase Two.
Physical distancing requirements remain in effect. In restaurants, indoor capacity is limited to no more than 50% of maximum occupancy, excluding employees. Personal care establishments must limit workforce and customer presence to no more than 50% of maximum occupancy.
A minimum of six feet must be maintained between restaurant tables and between customer seating in salons, or physical barriers at lest five feet tall must be placed within tables.
Face coverings are mandatory for all employees and patrons. Restaurant patrons may remove face coverings when seated.
All upstate regions are already in Phase Three. The Mid-Hudson region — the downstate suburban counties north of New York City — is on track to enter Phase Three tomorrow. The New York City region enters Phase Two today.
As restrictions are slowly lifted, health officials are monitoring COVID-19 test results and hospitalizations for indications of any surge in the virus. So far, the numbers in New York continue to trend downward.
About 1% of those tested in the state are testing positive for the virus and the number of hospitalizations continues to decline. The state is “on the right path toward defeating the virus,” the governor said yesterday.
As New York takes incremental steps to open its economy, state officials warily eye outbreaks in other states that have reopened. Cases have risen 15% in the United States over the past two weeks, rising in 23 states across the South, West and Midwest, with a dozen states marking single-day new case records last week.
New York State reported 664 new cases on Saturday, bringing the state’s total confirmed cases to 387,936. That number has been relatively stable for the past two weeks.
Suffolk’s seven-day rolling average for positive tests results was 1% as of Saturday, according to state data, though Saturday’s number — 1.2% positive — went above 1% for the first time since June 8.
There were 40,972 confirmed cases in Suffolk as of Saturday.
This weekend, the number of people in Suffolk hospitalized for COVID-19 dropped below 100 for the first time since the crisis began. Ninety people were hospitalized for the disease as of Saturday — 11 of those were new admissions. Seventeen people were discharged. There was one new fatality reported, bringing Suffolk’s COVID-19 death toll to 2,013 — 1,964 of those deaths were Suffolk residents, with 814 of those deaths (41.5%) in long-term care facilities, according to State Health Department data.
Riverhead Town has had 729 confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to state data.
Riverhead remains under a state of emergency. Most town park facilities will remain closed through June 30, pursuant to the town supervisor’s most recent emergency order, which took effect Saturday.
Baseball/softball/soccer fields, basketball courts, skate park, hockey rink and playgrounds are still closed, as are bathrooms and concession. Dog parks are open, as is the EPCAL recreation trail, open space/park areas and town beaches for passive recreation. Town beaches are not open for swimming yet as there are no lifeguards on duty.
Town Hall, the Town Justice Court, Planning/Building Department and Recreation Department at Stotzky Park are open on a limited basis. All town meetings are canceled through June 30, except a town board work session on Thursday at 10 a.m. and a ZBA meeting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
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