ALBANY – New York State officials are clarifying where movie theaters can reopen around the state and now say Chautauqua County is not currently eligible to reopen them.
Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Saturday morning that movie theaters outside of New York City can reopen at 25 percent capacity under new state guidance starting Friday.
However, following his live press briefing, his office clarified that Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany Counties cannot reopen theaters.
“Movie theaters outside of New York City will be allowed to reopen at 25 percent capacity with up to 50 people maximum per screen,” said Cuomo. “This is outside of New York City in areas that have infection rates below 2 percent on a 14-day average and have no cluster zones.”
Cuomo’s Office did not explain why the counties are not included in the reopening. WNY News Now has reached out to Chautauqua County Executive PJ Wendel who is working to learn why.
The Governor recently introduced a new inactive to combat COVID-19 clusters, dubbed the Cluster Action Initiative.
Cuomo says the positivity rate for test results reported in clusters statewide on Friday was 4.34 percent, down from 4.84 the day before.
Outside of the NYC area, his office has not defined what areas are included as the clusters.
Within the “Red Zone” focus areas, the Governor says, 4,305 test results were reported Friday, yielding 187 positives or a 4.34 percent positivity rate.
In the remainder of the state, not counting these “Red Zone” focus areas, 155,667 test results were reported, yielding 1,597 positives or a 1.02 percent positivity rate.
The state’s overall positivity rate is 1.11 percent with focus areas included.
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