As New York inches back to reopening more and more businesses, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention issued a report Friday emphasizing that “universal masking and avoiding nonessential indoor spaces are recommended to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.”
The state is poised to relax restrictions in several areas - on March 22nd, residential outdoor gatherings can more than double, from 10 people to 25. Social hangouts in public places can rise from 50 people to 100 people indoors and 200 people outdoors.
With certain COVID-19 testing requirements in place, weddings can hold 150 people starting March 15th, and events at arts and entertainment venues can include 150 people indoors starting April 2nd. Indoor dining has reopened at 35% capacity.
Movie theaters reopened Friday in New York City at a 25% occupancy rate, or a maximum of 50 patrons. On April 2nd the city’s arts and entertainment venues can begin reopening at 33% capacity, with an indoor capacity of 100-150 attendees. Indoor events will be limited to 100 people no matter the venue size, unless that venue can administer COVID-19 tests to all attendees, in which case the limit is increased to 150 people.
Meanwhile, the CDC warned that indoor dining was associated with COVID-19 cases increasing, with the cases increasing 41 to a hundred days after the dining policy has been instituted. More urgently, permitting indoor dining is linked to an increase in daily death rates within 61 to a hundred days after the policy is instituted, the CDC said.
The increased number of COVID-19 cases may be due to factors like increasing numbers of restaurants choosing to reopen for indoor dining, as well as restaurant diners being more willing to eat indoors as time passes, the CDC said.
“Restricting any on-premises dining at restaurants can help limit community transmission of COVID-19 and reduce case and death growth rates,” the CDC said, along with strict and consistent mask policies.
The National Restaurant Association said in a statement Friday the CDC study was “an ill-informed attack on the industry hardest-hit by the pandemic,” the New York Times reported, and researchers did not take into account outside factors like other business reopenings that could have an effect on COVID-19 rates.
“If a positive correlation between ice cream sales and shark attacks is found, that would not mean that ice cream causes shark attacks,” the association said in a statement.
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