Bored New Yorkers may be breathing a sigh of relief right now, as Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Saturday that many of the state’s movie theaters will soon be allowed to reopen. Many in the theater industry were hoping to hear this soon in order to curb the damage done to their business by the pandemic. This news came during a press conference where he specified that this exception would begin as soon as October 23rd.
The decision to reopen was accompanied by similar caveats to those seen as other states have ended their theater lockdowns as well, with a limit to 25% capacity or no more than 50 people in each individual auditorium. The theaters have also been allowed to resume selling refreshments, in contrast to the news that other theaters around the country have been barred from doing the same.
Cuomo explained his decision with the current COVID-19 statistics in New York state, clarifying that this effort to reopen will only apply to counties with a 14-day average of less than 2% infection. This unfortunately disqualifies several counties, but it’s still a start, and it’s a decent sign that New York as a whole is handling the pandemic a bit more gracefully than before. Once again, this announcement still does not include New York City itself, likely due to the city’s famously dense population, though theater owners are optimistic that it’s only a matter of time.
Cuomo began the announcement with a light boast about New York‘s COVID testing prowess, proudly proclaiming that they’ve reached 160,000 tests in a single day. This is a far cry from earlier in the year when states seemingly had to beg just to get the tiniest amount of tests allotted to them. But while it’s still unlikely this pandemic will see an end any time soon, this slightly more coordinated effort to prevent spreading has been encouraging.
The trend of slowly reopening theaters around the country lately could still be seen as premature, especially considering the decidedly less than stellar handling of the pandemic in the United States compared to the rest of the world. It wouldn’t be difficult to argue in favor of simply keeping everything closed until those efforts improve on a large scale. In fact, many theaters have been searching for alternate methods of keeping their businesses intact without fully reopening, with varying degrees of success.
But as long as health and safety guidelines are followed and strictly enforced, many stir-crazy movie fans appear to be willing to take that slightly mitigated risk, so it’s better than simply reopening with little to no preventative measures, as many restaurants appear to be doing. Hopefully a dutiful adherence to the rules will prove that audiences can handle the responsibility and beat the virus in style.
Source: Deadline
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