PHASE 2 STARTS IN MID-HUDSON
Outdoor dining, haircuts, in-store shopping return to area counties
The Mid-Hudson Region on Tuesday enters Phase 2 of reopening from the coronavirus-related shutdowns, meaning local restaurants can serve outdoors, hair can again be cut in barber shops and salons, and retail stores can welcome back customers.
“This is one more very important step toward getting us all back to living our lives as safely and productively as possible,” Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro said by phone Monday. “I think Phase 2 presents a much broader opening of businesses that have truly been so severely affected, but it also presents that mainstream incremental reopening that the public will appreciate and see.”
Phase 2 also allows professional offices to reopen, and vehicle sales, leasing and rentals to resume, among others things.
The state is reopening each of its 10 regions in four phases and has said there generally will be two weeks between each phase. The Mid-Hudson Region — which comprises Ulster, Dutchess, Sullivan, Orange, Putnam, Rockland and Westchester counties — entered Phase 1 on May 26, the day after Memorial Day.
“This is one more very important step toward getting us all back to living our lives as safely and productively as possible.”
— Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro
“These businesses [that have been closed] have sacrificed a lot, and their livelihoods are on the line,” Molinaro said. “For those who have the resources and have the money, we strongly encourage the residents to shop in their neighborhood store, [eat at] their Main Street restaurant, and show them the support that they need. pending those dollars locally will have a profound effect on assisting that business, but also reigniting the economy.”
Tuesday marks the 101st day since the first reported case of COVID-19 in New York state, and the numbers of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to fall, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday.
“We’re not out of the woods, but certainly on the other side,” Cuomo said at his daily press briefing.
David Amato, owner of the Ole Savannah Southern Table & Bar at the Rondout Creek waterfront in Downtown Kingston, said Monday that he was looking forward to welcoming customers Tuesday.
“We’re opening our outdoor deck and tent,” Amato said. “We’re just preparing right now to get open. We have plenty of seating and social distancing for everybody. We spaced [the tables] out. Normally I use the tent for catering. We’re going to use it for outdoor dining in this circumstance. We have about 200 seats outside.
“We’re very excited, to say the least,” said Amato, whose restaurant was gearing up for St. Patrick’s Day in March when everything started shutting down because of the pandemic.
Ole Savannah, like many restaurants in the region and statewide, has provided takeout meals and delivery service since being barred from serving on site.
“We’ve been doing very well with the takeout and the family meals to go, which we will continue to do,” Amato said, but “we’re very eager to get open. The staff’s very excited. Pretty much all the employees are starting back to work this week.”
Mariner’s Harbor, also at the creekfront, is normally closed Mondays and Tuesdays. A recorded phone message said Monday that outdoor dining will start Wednesday.
The Diamond Mills Hotel & Tavern, along the Esopus Creek in Saugerties, will serve meals on its newly covered outdoor terrace starting Tuesday. And Terrapin, a restaurant in the heart of the village of Rhinebeck, will resume patio dining Tuesday.
Terrapin is asking patrons to stay no more than 90 minutes, due to limited seating, though that will be extended to two hours for people who order dining room entrees.
At all restaurants, patrons during Phase 2 are required to wear masks when not seated and maintain social distancing from other parties.
“In Dutchess, we’ve taken significant steps,” Molinaro said Monday. “I issued an executive order today, working with the towns, villages and cities, to waive a lot of local regulations that would prohibit and preclude outdoor dining, to just make it a lot easier for restaurants to expand into open spaces out into the community.”
Retailers, which until now have been restricted to curbside pickup of online orders, can reopen in Phase 2 with the same instore protocols that grocery stores have been using throughout the pandemic, Molinaro said. Those include wearing face masks, adhering to social-distance rules and following directional markers.
“County leaders across the state were successful working with the governor’s office to advance a few things that were [to be] put off to Phase 3 or weren’t entirely operational in earlier phases,” Molinaro said. “We were able to advance the retail aspect to Phase 2. Outdoor dining was actually in Phase 3. We’re going to continue to advocate [for] what makes sense . ...
“Our goal here is to protect lives while also helping our community get back to life,” he said.
Cuomo said at his Monday briefing that reopenings “must continue to be smart.”
“We have our mojo, our energy back, but you have to stay smart after the reopening,” he said.
“County leaders across the state were successful working with the governor’s office to advance a few things that were [to be] put off to Phase 3 or weren’t entirely operational in earlier phases.”
— Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro
By the numbers
Ulster County on Monday said it had had 1,767 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 81 deaths since the outbreak began. It said there were 487 active cases.
Greene County reported 308 cases, 21 active cases and 18 deaths.
Columbia county reported 402 cases, 34 active cases and 36 deaths.
Cuomo said 58,054 people in New York state were tested for COVID-19 on Saturday, and only 702 of them (1.2%) were found to have the illness. He also said there were only three confirmed cases among 656 people tested in the Mid-Hudson Region on Sunday.
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