US: NYC indoor dining to open Friday with 25% capacity

ANKARA

Indoor dining in New York City restaurants will restart on Friday at 25% capacity after a surge in the coronavirus pandemic, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said Monday.

The reopening will come two days ahead of the previously scheduled date of Feb. 14, Sunday, Valentine's Day.

"The post-holiday surge is over," Cuomo told a press conference, pointing to November and December, when millions of people in the US celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Eve.

Despite pandemic measures and limits on transportation, many Americans still gathered with their families, causing a surge in number of new cases.

"Total COVID hospitalizations are at 7,716. Of the 197,183 tests reported yesterday, 8,448 were positive (4.28% of total). Sadly, there were 114 fatalities," Cuomo wrote on Twitter.

"We are about 90% of all doses allocated used in arms and it is only Monday ... We have more distribution than we have product on the shelves," Cuomo told the news conference.

He noted that New York also has 5,000 distribution centers that are ready for additional vaccine supply.

In the US, more than 59.3 million doses were distributed and over 42.4 million doses were administered as of 6.00 a.m. EDT (1100GMT) Monday, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But the number of people receiving two doses of vaccine was just over 9.5 million.