New York governor says not wearing face masks 'disrespectful' to frontline workers and threatens to punish reopening violations

Andrew Cuomo has said not wearing a mask is “disrespectful” to frontline workers as the New York governor threatened to take action against non-compliance of social distancing rules as the state reopens.

The state has successfully fought back against the coronavirus pandemic that for weeks saw New York City as the main global hot spot for Covid-19 infections.

A big part of that fight was strictly enforced social distancing rules which allowed for a decrease in infection rates and then the staged reopening of the state. That enforcement is now slipping.

Scenes of streets crowded with drinkers outside of bars and restaurants appeared on social media over the weekend, prompting the governor to threaten to roll back the reopening of those areas in violation.

The state had received more than 25,000 complaints related to healthy and safety infractions mainly by bars and restaurants, with businesses in Manhattan and the Hamptons the worst violators.

Speaking at his daily press conference, Mr Cuomo said that he did not want to have to take action at the state level because local authorities are not doing their job and enforcing the rules.

Describing the violations as “rampant”, he decried the lack of enforcement.

“I’m not going to allow situations to exist, that we know have a high likelihood of causing an increase in the virus,” Governor Cuomo said. “Local governments, do your job.”

The governor said that since they began to reopen, almost half of other states have seen an increase in cases of Covid-19. That has not happened in New York, and he is keen to keep it that way.

“If we have a high number of violations of the policy, which is tantamount to a high likelihood of the spread of the virus, and the local governments are not monitoring, policing, doing the compliance, yes there is a very real possibility that we would roll back the reopening in those areas. The only alternative would be to pause the entire reopening,” he said.

He reminded bars and restaurants that if they violate the law, they can lose their liquor licence, and individuals with open containers of alcohol in the street can be fined.

The governor also made a point of reminding those protesting about the death of George Floyd, as well as the police, that they must wear masks and can be fined for flouting the rule.

Updating the latest coronavirus numbers for the state, Mr Cuomo announced a new low in the number of deaths from Covid-19, with 23 recorded on Saturday. Total hospitalisations also fell to 1,657, the lowest level since 20 March.

New York state has recorded more than 383,000 cases of coronavirus and 30,790 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

A number of states that pushed ahead with reopening plans before minimising the number of cases and potential for transmission of the virus are seeing their numbers spike.

Florida has seen the number of new cases per day grow from approximately 375 when the state began to reopen in mid-May, to 2,581 on 13 June. Texas is seeing similar numbers, and California recorded in excess of 3,600 new cases on Friday.