What you should know
- Movie theaters outside of New York City may reopen at 25% of their usual capacity or with a maximum of 50 people per theater
- Long Island’s oldest theater, the Bellmore Playhouse, which survived the Spanish flu, is determined to survive the coronavirus
- Infections in critical areas of NYC continue to decline where restrictions in Brooklyn could be relaxed as in Queens in a couple of weeks
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NEW YORK – Movie theaters in New York State may reopen beginning Friday with audience size restrictions and other precautions, except those in New York City, which also lagged behind the rest of the state. in the reopening of restaurants and indoor shopping centers.
By welcoming the public by first time in seven months, large screens will be restricted to 25% capacity with a maximum of 50 people per screen, Governor Andrew Cuomo said. Masks will be required and seats will be assigned to ensure social distancing.
Long Island’s oldest theater, the Bellmore Playhouse in Nassau County, has even survived the 1918 Spanish flu and is determined to survive the coronavirus as well. To make sure viewers are safe, the theater installed new air filtration systems and hand sanitizing stations.
“We’ve had a lot of phone calls asking us about our hours, a lot of emails… so hopefully we’ll be successful tomorrow,” Bellmore staff member Robin Sullivan said before the reopening. But with limited capacity in single-screen cinema, is that enough to make the comeback a success?
Bellmore owner Anne Stampfel says “it’s a start.”
“It’s the cash flow. It’s getting people out of unemployment, including myself. I had never been unemployed until this happened,” she said.
Governor Cuomo met with the region’s governors on Tuesday to map out a plan to prevent a spike in cases from interstate travel.
They wait more reopenings in New York next week, as several schools in Queens welcome students in person on Monday. It comes after schools in the orange and red microgroup zones had to switch to remote classes for two weeks.
Nonessential businesses, including indoor dining, reopened in parts of Queens on Thursday as well, where Cuomo relaxed the rules a day earlier.
In Brooklyn’s highest risk area, its red zone in places like Borough Park, strict virus control measures will be extended, and Cuomo will cite ongoing issues in terms of COVID positivity rates and community compliance.
Mayor Bill de Blasio acknowledged that people were frustrated, but noted how quickly progress was made in Queens, saying it probably wouldn’t be much longer before restrictions in Brooklyn were lifted.
The maps of Orange and Rockland counties were also not changed. Although the governor noticed an improvement, he said it was not enough.
The sprouting saga may be the new way of life for some parts of New York, at least for now. Cuomo said he would re-evaluate metrics, including positivity rates, hospitalization and new case trends, local enforcement, and community compliance, in a rolling 10-day period. He said he would make adjustments as progress warranted. And you have the flexibility to do the same if new problems arise.
Cuomo said Thursday that the positivity rate in the micro-groups (red, orange, and yellow zones combined) was 3.2 percent, and that the positivity rate statewide excluding those groups was 0.96 percent (1.2 percent). cent if groups are included). Those numbers have improved. from a day before.
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