“We have a choice ” said Tom Friedman, the former director of the CEnters for Disease Control & Prevention. “Close bars and indoor dining and give kids a chance to go back to school. Or keep bars open.”
Bars are especially high on public health officials radar because they are often tightly compacted with people yelling at the top of their lungs. Ideally, we’re sure, public health officials would prefer to keep bars open — if it could be done without furthering the spread of Covid-19, which has led to an unfolding economic catastrophe.
We’d think bar operators would want to stay open for business and not have their licenses suspended — or, even worse, lose them altogether. And yet, over the weekend, motre than 105 bars in New York City and Long Island were cited for coronavirus distancing violations. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said some face suspension of their liquor licenses.
They were cited for such violations are people crowding outside and workers not wearing masks by a new state police and liquor authority task force.
Those citations followed 10 suspensions last week for the same sort of conduct.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Texas bar owners vowed to defy orders to close after a surge in coronavirus cases.