Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Sunday reprimanded the New Yorkers who broke coronavirus social-distancing rules, threatening to shut down Manhattan and the Hamptons again.
“We’re not going to go back to that dark place because local governments didn’t do their job” and people don’t take the proper precautions amid the coronavirus, Cuomo said, noting the state has received 25,000 complaints about health-safety violations since the start of the pandemic.
“These are not hard-to-spot violations. People send videos of these violations,” the governor said, arguing that police and officials weren’t enforcing the rules enough on the local level.
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This weekend the Democrat tweeted a warning in response to a video of throngs of New Yorkers reveling in the streets with few wearing masks or social distancing: “Don’t make me come down there.”
He warned New Yorkers to be cautious, and for local governments to “enforce compliance.” He also renewed calls for protesters demonstrating in the wake of the death of George Floyd to get tested amid fears that the protests could be fertile ground for COVID.
“I’m not going to allow situations to exist that we know have a high likelihood of causing an increase in the virus,” Cuomo said. “Local governments, do your job.”
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He went on, “Local governments are not monitoring policing, doing the compliance, yes, there is a very real possibility that we would roll back the reopening of those areas.”
Cuomo has come under criticism for his handling of the pandemic, with critics pointing to a now-changed order that required nursing homes to take in COVID-19 patients -- where the elderly, the most likely to suffer serious symptoms from the virus, were housed. Cuomo and his administration argued it was following guidelines issued by the Trump administration.
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