NYSRA Update: COVID-19 Outbreak | May 18, 2020

Good News
  • At Bel Air Diner in Astoria, a great new initiative has popped up. While holding socially distant drive-in style movie showings, the Diner has found a way to help those on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis. For each bag of popcorn sold during an event, Bel Air Diner is providing a meal to a first responder or their family. Since beginning this program, more than 100 meals have been donated. To take things a step further, Bel Air has committed the profits from their first two events to their local precinct as a thank you for their service. Read more: https://www.belairediner.nyc/about/​ 

Federal
  • Today, President Trump convened a White House meeting to discuss the future of the restaurant industry. The President was joined by administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Mnuchin. Melvin Rodrigue, Chair and Marvin Irby, Interim CEO, of the National Restaurant Association were present to offer their perspectives. The participants ranged from independent owners to large franchise owners to chain CEOs. 
  • Below is a new survey released in conjunction with the National Restaurant Association Research Group to allow us to continue to collect important data together for our ongoing shared communications and advocacy activities regarding coronavirus. https://restaurant.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_ebPem625adA3i8B
  • On Saturday, the SBA released their loan forgiveness application. It contained additional information about how to calculate full-time equivalent (FTE) employees. Average FTE: This calculates the average full-time equivalency during the Covered Period or the Alternative Payroll Covered Period. For each employee, enter the average number of hours paid per week, divide by 40, and round the total to the nearest tenth. The maximum for each employee is capped at 1.0. A simplified method that assigns a 1.0 for employees who work 40 hours or more per week and 0.5 for employees who work fewer hours may be used at the election of the Borrower. https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/2020-05/3245-0407%20SBA%20Form%203508%20PPP%20Forgiveness%20Application.pdf

State
  • Governor Cuomo announced today that tomorrow, May 19th, the Western New York region will become the sixth region in the State to begin with phase one of the reopening process. The region had originally been over 300 people shy of the needed 521 tracers, but they have been able to identify enough tracers to pass that last benchmark over the last 24 hours.
  • On Sunday, the Governor promoted several services to help individuals struggling with their mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. The New York State Emotional Support Hotline can be reached at: 1-844-863-9314. The Mental Health Coalition provides support at: howareyoureally.org/. Additional resources are available at: headspace.com/ny.
  • On Saturday, New York State launched a new business reopening tool that uses NAICS codes to clarify what businesses can reopen. The new tool will not impact essential business designations. Remember, the State is reopening regionally so if your business/industry has multiple locations in the State you will need to check each by county. The tool is located here: https://www.businessexpress.ny.gov/app/nyforward.
  • NYSRA has washable, reusable facemasks for restaurant workers and delivery drivers. The masks were given to NYSRA for free by the State of New York through the State Liquor Authority. We will be handing them out at the locations listed below. Please contact us at [email protected] to pre-order masks at these pickup locations:
  • Tuesday, May 19
  • Lower Hudson Valley — Westchester Marriott, 670 White Plains Rd, Tarrytown, 11am – 2pm
  • Metro NYC — Antun's, 96-43 Springfield Blvd, Queens Village, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
  • Wednesday, May 20
  • Metro NYC — Marco Polo, 345 Court St, Brooklyn, 1pm – 4pm
  • Rochester — Rochester Public Market, 280 Union St. N, 12pm – 3pm

NYC
  • Over the weekend, there were numerous reports of people congregating outside of bars and restaurants, in some cases violating social distancing requirements, as people took advantage of the warm weather. Mayor de Blasio has warned against this behavior, encouraging people to disperse, and restaurants to enforce social distancing rules. There were also scattered reports of restaurants allowing people to dine on-premises, and de Blasio has warned that violations of the dine-in ban could see fines or even shut-downs in response. Violators of the ban on dining on-premise have seen their liquor licenses suspended by the State Liquor Authority.

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