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NYC restaurants to open indoor dining at 25 percent capacity
CGTN
A man walks past the outdoor dining area of restaurants in Manhattan of New York City, the United States, on July 6, 2020. New York City, once the epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis in the United States, entered phase three of reopening on Monday without resuming indoor dining. Personal care services, such as nail salons and massage parlors, are allowed to reopen after nearly four months of closure. /Xinhua

A man walks past the outdoor dining area of restaurants in Manhattan of New York City, the United States, on July 6, 2020. New York City, once the epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis in the United States, entered phase three of reopening on Monday without resuming indoor dining. Personal care services, such as nail salons and massage parlors, are allowed to reopen after nearly four months of closure. /Xinhua

New York City restaurants will be allowed open indoor dining at 25 percent capacity beginning on Valentines Day, February 14, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Friday.

Cuomo said the city went from 7.1 percent positivity in January to 4.9 percent now, and that the current models project those numbers will continue to drop.

Statewide, the positivity rate stands at 4.65 percent, the lowest since December 11, which Cuomo said was the start of the post-Thanksgiving holiday surge.

"We make decisions based on facts, based on the numbers, New York City numbers down," he said. "But facts change. It sounds inconsistent. We like to think a fact is always a fact. No, facts change. COVID facts change dramatically, and they change often...If there are facts, and the facts change, we will have a different situation. One state response that is a given, if any area's hospital capacity hits 85 percent, then we go back to restrictions."

New York City's outdoor dining set ups, like those in the West Village, are not going to get much use through the weekend, with wind chills dipping into the single digits. But there is now hope on the horizon.

(With input from agencies)

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