STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A wave of new restrictions was placed on large swaths of Staten Island after officials announced Monday that the entirety of the South Shore has been designated an orange zone amid a rise in coronavirus (COVID-19) infection rates.
Orange zones — the middle-ground of the state’s three-tier, micro-cluster system — are designated if an area has a seven-day rolling average positivity above 3% for 10 days, and also has 10 or more new daily cases per 100,000 residents on a seven-day average. Additional factors are the total and daily hospital admissions in the area.
Businesses that are considered high-risk must close, and only outdoor dining is permitted. Mass gatherings, both indoor and outdoor, are capped at 10 people.
Staten Island’s orange-zone restrictions begin for businesses on Wednesday, according to the governor’s office, and Thursday for schools.
Here’s a look at the neighborhoods affected by the order:
SOUTH SHORE
The entirety of the Island’s South Shore is covered by the state’s orange zone.
Ranging from Tottenville to Charleston and Arden Heights moving west, to Pleasant Plains, Annadale and Great Kills moving up the East Shore, the restrictions cover a massive geographical area on Staten Island.
Within this zone, certain “non-essential businesses” considered higher-risk associated with the transmission of the coronavirus must close.
That includes: Gyms, fitness centers, barbers, hair salons, spas, tattoo and piercing parlors, nail technicians and nail salons, cosmetologists, estheticians, and laser hair removal and electrolysis companies.
Under an orange zone, indoor dining is no longer allowed. Outdoor dining is permitted with a four-person table maximum. Restaurants can also continue to offer takeout and delivery.
Bars and restaurants must close at 10 p.m. for on-premises dining, according to the state.
WEST SHORE
The orange zone ends on Staten Island’s West Shore at the border of Arden Heights, Great Kills and Richmond. Sections of New Springville and Travis remain in the state’s yellow zone.
The orange zone cuts off at Muldoon Avenue, approaching Arthur Kill Road, and Richmond Hill Road, at Forest Hill Road, according to the governor’s map. Richmond Avenue, below Forest Hill Road, is also in the orange-zone area.
A yellow-zone designation occurs when a seven-day average positivity rate for an area is above 2.5%, according to the state.
Under Staten Island’s current yellow-zone designation, businesses are allowed to remain open and indoor and outdoor dining is permitted with a four-person table maximum. Additionally, under the state’s restrictions, bars and restaurants must close by 10 p.m., but can still offer curbside food pickup after that time.
Mass gatherings, both indoor and outdoor, are usually capped at 25 people under a yellow zone. However, Cuomo introduced even further restrictions statewide.
MID-ISLAND
Moving toward the Island’s East Shore, sections of Lighthouse Hill, Egbertville, New Dorp, Oakwood and Grant City are in the orange-zone designation.
Additionally, a small section of Dongan Hills — near Jefferson Street — is in the orange zone while most of the neighborhood is within the yellow zone, including sections near the border of Grant City.
The restrictions placed throughout the Island come as the borough has seen a concerning rise in hospitalizations in recent weeks.
“Staten Island is a problem,” Cuomo said at a press conference Monday. “The number of hospitalizations on Staten Island over the past three weeks have basically tripled.”
On the East Shore of Staten Island, Midland Beach serves as a partial cutoff to the state’s orange zone.
Sections of Midland Beach remain cloaked in orange while other sections are still operating under yellow-zone conditions.
For example — Slater Boulevard, considered by the Advance/SILive.com to be Midland Beach, is just above the border of the orange zone, while the southern sections of the neighborhood were given more stringent restrictions beginning this week.
Ocean Breeze and South Beach are in the yellow zone; this includes the location where state officials announced an emergency field hospital would reopen on the grounds of South Beach Psychiatric Center.
The field hospital previously handled about 100 patients in the spring when hospitalizations were at their highest, said Gareth Rhodes, deputy superintendent and special counsel for New York Department of Financial Services.
INTERACTIVE MAP
You can zoom in on the Mid-Island border in the interactive map below to see precise boundaries that separate orange and yellow zones on Staten Island.”
