Earlier this week New York Governor Andrew Cuomo shut down all indoor dining at restaurants across the state, further devastating small businesses and their workers. According to the government's own data, restaurants account for just 1.4 percent of Wuhan coronavirus spread.
Restaurants and bars accounted for 1.43 percent of COVID-19 cases recorded between September through the end of November, according to contact tracing data.
The figure places the industry as the fifth-largest contributor to spreading COVID-19 in the state, following education employees (1.5 percent), higher-education students (2.02 percent), and healthcare delivery (7.81 percent).
The largest contributor to COVID-19 spread in New York, by far, is private household and social gatherings. According to the state, 73.84 percent of COVID-19 cases spread through private gatherings.
As his own peaceful protest and to prove a point about the closures, the owner of Trattoria L’incontro in Queens dined with his staff outside as a blizzard rolled in. They toasted with wine in the snow.
"This is our first, the first snow storm of the year here so I would like to thank New York City for this beautiful night here. Guys, let's cheers," Rocco Sacramone says in a video posted on Instagram. "So as you can see we're having outdoor dinner. Only four of us so hopefully we're not breaking the rules (laughs). The pizza on the snow plate here looks nice. We're going to have a nice piece of mozzerella."
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"This is how we're going to be doing now outdoor dinner or outdoor lunch from this day on since we're celebrating our first snow storms," he continued.
Earlier this week restaurant owners took to the streets in Times Square to protest the shutdown of indoor dining.
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