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Bars and clubs in the Big Apple, the epicenter of the US’s spring outbreak, were ordered to close at 10 p.m. On Friday and state Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned schools could move to online only teaching.

New York City service workers woke up to a terrifying new reality on Monday, as the government's latest measure to contain the spread of COVID-19 forced bars and nightclubs to close their doors indefinitely, while limiting restaurants to takeout and delivery.

• In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the governors of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut decided to shut down bars, restaurants and movie theatres to prevent viral transmissions.
• Cuomo: State can now shut down rule-breaking bars immediately Updated Jun 18, 2020; Posted Jun 18, 2020 The New York State Liquor Authority has suspended 18 bars for violating the coronavirus.
• Cuomo threatened on Thursday to shut down bars and restaurants and revoke their liquor licenses when they violate social distancing and other regulations aimed at preventing spread.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the move in a tweet late Sunday, an abrupt pivot from his recent insistence that New Yorkers should continue to patronize their favorite establishments.

'This is not a decision I make lightly,” Mayor de Blasio said. “These places are part of the heart and soul of our city. They are part of what it means to be a New Yorker. But our city is facing an unprecedented threat, and we must respond with a wartime mentality.'

The decision was widely supported by public health experts and elected officials, who had sharply criticized the mayor for not taking action sooner as droves of New Yorkers crowded into the bars and clubs this past weekend, potentially accelerating the spread of the virus. Many service workers said they understood the decision as well, but feared the economic toll would be devastating.

“A complete shutdown of bars and restaurants is the absolute right and responsible choice,” said Hannah Small, a line cook at mediterranean restaurant in Dumbo. “But I’m so scared for myself and the people I work with.”

On Monday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the measures would apply statewide beginning at 8 p.m. tonight. Restaurants and bars will also be allowed to sell alcohol to-go, he said.

The effective lockdown represents an unprecedented blow to the city’s thriving nightlife industry, with likely convulsions for the local economy at large. The industry accounts for roughly $35 billion in annual revenue, and supports about 300,000 workers earning $13 billion in salaries, according to a recent report from the Mayor’s Office.

Without a deadline to reopen, many feared that their workplaces would not survive. “The hit we take as a small business will be too great to come back from,” said Meagan Reilly, a 24-year-old bartender in Harlem. “My heart is broken for the job that I loved.”

While Reilly predicted she would face financial hardship — she has already made the decision to stop paying her student loans — she said she was most worried about her coworkers, many of whom are immigrants already struggling to support their families.

“My coworker Eddie has two children and a wife who is a teacher,” she told Gothamist. “Eddie works at one restaurant during the day and with us at night, and both have closed. Eddie’s now income-less with two children under 6.”

Without any sense of where their next paycheck will come from, many workers said they would soon be reliant on outside financial support. Some current and former restaurant employees have begun fundraising for those most impacted by the shutdown.

“A lot of us are turning to Venmo and Cashapp and the like to say, ‘Hey maybe tip us what you’d spend going out since you aren’t anymore?’” said April Glick, a server at Ampersand in Gramercy.

Glick said her bosses have been upfront about the looming challenges. But the shifting communication from the mayor and governor have only made a painful time more confusing, she said.

“‘Will we be open?’ became the mayor making jokes about bars, which quickly spun into ‘they’re closed Tuesday morning’ and I wake up today to ‘they’re closed tonight at 8,’” Glick said. “I have a shift scheduled at 5 today and am just waiting to hear from my boss.”

Like many in the high-turnover restaurant industry, Glick said she was not eligible for unemployment protections, since she’d started her latest job in January. She expected to survive for about a month on savings. “I don’t know long term what this really does to me financially.”

Multiple workers who did qualify for unemployment told Gothamist that the online application system crashed on Monday morning as they were scrambling to apply for benefits.

The relief efforts currently underway on the federal level have inspired little confidence among industry workers so far. A package of bills passed this weekend by the House include a proposal to grant two weeks of paid leave to those stuck at home because of the virus, and to provide up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave at 67 percent of the person’s normal pay, with a $200 per day cap. But there are significant carve-outs, and the bill is guaranteed to cover just twenty percent of the workforce.

Because so many restaurant workers are living paycheck-to-paycheck, even a minor drop in take-home pay could leave them in a precarious situation. “Two-thirds of my income is just not going to cut it,” said John Wolfe, a counter-server at a small restaurant near Union Square. “My rent is close to 50 percent of my paycheck, so, simple math, that leaves me with 16 percent above my rent.'

A growing number of legislators are calling for direct cash transfers to all workers. But it remains unclear if Senate Republicans are even willing to support the current package of bills proposed by House Democrats.

Without immediate relief in sight, workers said they were now gearing up for difficult decisions. Wolfe said he would likely move to a cheaper apartment and fall back on credit card debt as a safety net.

“Personally I’m a communist and believe in strong government intervention,” he said. “There’s got to at least be some sort of cash injection so people can buy groceries.”

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New York's public schools closed Thursday, sparking debate over whether the measure will help fend off a second coronavirus wave when classroom transmission is low and non-essential businesses remain open.

Cuomo Shuts Down State

While European countries have so far kept schools open, focusing instead on shutting down indoor dining, bars and gyms, America's most populous city has taken the opposite approach.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday the United States's biggest public school system, which teaches 1.1 million students, would revert to remote learning Thursday 'out an abundance of caution.'

The announcement came after the city -- where COVID-19 has killed more than 24,000 residents, most in the spring -- recorded a seven-day average positivity rate of three percent.

'The data's very clear that we have to keep our kids safe, our educators safe,' de Blasio told CBS Thursday.

The move is controversial though, with parents pointing out that recent testing has shown that schools are not the source of New York's spike in infections.

Officials say the positivity rate in schools is just 0.23 percent.

Almost 13,000 New Yorkers have signed a petition entitled 'Keep NYC Schools Open' that campaigners and kids delivered to city hall and state Governor Andrew Cuomo on Thursday.

In it, they argue that officials are sacrificing children's futures to keep non-essential businesses open.

Video: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on de Blasio's decision to close schools in NYC to curb Covid-19 outbreak (CNBC)

Cuomo has warned that New York City could soon be designated an 'orange zone,' which would trigger the shutdown of non-essential activities including indoor dining and gyms, but for now they remain open.

'Exercising in a gym is not more important than educating the next generation of our city's citizens. Eating indoors is not less dangerous than students sitting six feet apart with their masks on,' reads the petition.

The parents also say the school closures, which don't force private schools to halt in-person learning, discriminates against poor families who struggle to afford childcare and depend on free school meals.

'The effect this is having on our kids is going to last a lifetime,' Megan Cossey, the mother of an 11-year-old, told AFP outside city hall.

- 'More aggressive' -

New York's 1,800 public schools first closed on March 16 when the city became the early epicenter of America's virus outbreak.

They were initially shuttered until April 20 before being shut until the end of the school year as the pandemic engulfed the Big Apple.

Nyc Shut Down Restaurants

They began reopening in September when New York became America's only major city to commit to offering in-person classes as part of a hybrid system that included online learning. About 300,000 children returned to classrooms.

Many cities, such as Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Miami, opted solely for the virtual model.

As a condition for teachers returning to classrooms, de Blasio's government agreed with powerful teaching unions that schools would close again if the three percent threshold was crossed.

Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, defended the shutdown, noting that health experts say it is right to be extra cautious going into next week's Thanksgiving holiday.

'We have to get much more aggressive on areas where children are coming into buildings because we want them to be safe and their families to be safe,' he told News 12.

New York's positivity rate is much lower than many areas of the US but it has crept up from the one percent it hovered around for much of summer and fall.

Jessica Justman, professor of epidemiology at Columbia School of Public Health, said it was right to close schools and that indoor dining and bars should follow.

Nyc Bars Shut Down

'In order to stay ahead of the curve, to me it makes sense to put these restrictions in place,' she told AFP.

Are Bars Open In Ny

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