#NYC bars hit with dozens of violations for breaking COVID-19 rules

New York City bars were slapped with dozens of social-distancing violations over the weekend for showing a “blatant disregard” for the rules, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday.

He said the enforcement blitz by State Liquor Authority agents — which resulted in 105 violations being handed out — came about because scofflaw establishments are continuing to flout safety regulations amid the killer coronavirus.

“This weekend in every county in downstate NY investigators found blatant disregard for the law at bars & restaurants,” the governor tweeted. “105 violations were issued. Suspensions will be determined this week.

“The state will enforce health laws. If we don’t, the virus will spread.”

The governor added to reporters in a conference call, “We have the compliance challenge, especially among young people, especially around bars.

“State government has become more aggressive.”

The governor said the violations were issued by investigators Friday and Saturday.

“They’re Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Nassau, Suffolk [counties on Long Island],” Cuomo said of the law-breaking establishments. “So literally in every county in downstate New York, city and down, they have had violations.

“They are everything we’ve been talking about,” he said of the violations.

“They are people outside of bars gathering and drinking, which is illegal. The takeout-alcohol [policy] was that you take out alcohol and you go home and you drink it. It was not you take out the alcohol but then you stand in front of the bar and drink it.

“That violates the open-container law,” the governor said. “It also violates the bar rules in terms of selling to-go alcohol. That’s a major violation with many of these.

“Inside the establishment, employees [are] not wearing masks” as required, either, Cuomo said. “Employees themselves [are] not wearing masks. The servers [are] not wearing masks.

“Those are probably the two biggest categories.”

He added of the SLA, “They’re going to be doing additional [liquor-license] suspensions. That they will do tomorrow.

“The suspensions are done by the board. The investigator cannot issue a suspension; they can issue a violation. The board has to suspend.

“They’ll have the reports from the investigators, and they’ll make a decision on how many suspensions to give.”

Last week, the state yanked the liquor licenses of three bars and restaurants in Queens for violating coronavirus safety rules.