Bars and restaurants, gyms, offices, entertainment venues, movie theaters, barber shops and hair salons will be able to go back largely to normal functioning with no requirements for social distancing or special cleaning under a sweeping relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions announced Tuesday by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.
The governor made the move after New York State on Monday reached the milestone of 70% of adults having received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
"It means that we can now return to life as we know it," he said.
He said New York reached that mark ahead of most others, despite being one of the places that took the first and most severe hits from the virus.