Free at Last: NYC Lifts Last of the COVID Restrictions

Image: AP

They’re words we’ve all long been waiting for, and at last we can write them — and mean it: Restaurants in New York will no longer require that tables be spaced six feet apart. The number of guests allowable at one time is back up to the legal limit.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo broke the good news today at a press conference, announcing that that effective immediately the state was ready to “return to life as we know it.”

“This is a momentous day and we deserve it because it has been a long, long road,”  Cuomo told a crowd at the World Trade Center downtown.

The governor’s decision was guided by a separate announcement from health officials noting that the city had reached the 70% threshold, meaning that 70% of the population had received at least a first COVID vaccination.