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Governor Cuomo just mandated that 100 percent of non-essential employees must stay at home.
"These provisions will be enforced," the governor said at a briefing in Albany. "These are not helpful hints."
Essential businesses include: grocery stores, restaurants, farmers markets, pharmacies, health care providers, gas stations, convenience stores, hardware stores, banks, laundromats and cleaners, child-care providers, auto repair shops, utility companies, warehouses and distributors, delivery services, plumbers and other skilled contractors, animal-care providers, transportation providers, construction companies and many kinds of manufacturers.
Wondering if you still are allowed to go outside?
"This is not life as usual," he said. "Remain indoors; go outside for solitary exercise. Don’t go to a house with multiple people. Don’t go to your daughter’s house. That is a mistake."
What is solitary recreational exercise? "It’s running and hiking. It’s not playing basketball with five other people. It’s not playing in the park with 10 other people and sharing a beer," he said.
His new policy also bans “all nonessential gatherings of individuals of any size for any reason.”
For people over 70 and those who have underlying illnesses, the governor announced strict rules allowing them to go outside only for solitary exercise too, and additionally requiring them to wear masks when in the company of others and barring them from visiting households with multiple people.
The restrictions will go into effect this Sunday night. Those who don’t comply will be subject to "civil fines," Cuomo said. "When I talk about the most drastic action we can take, this is the most drastic action we can take," he added.
The new orders come as the coronavirus case count spiked to more than 7,100 cases across the state — with 4,400 of those cases in New York City.