No Mask, No Service – Governor Issues Executive Order Authorizing Businesses To Refuse Entry To The Mask-less

Not long ago, as the pandemic was rolling out, we wrote about the Southern Brooklyn businesses denying customers entrance if they were not wearing masks, and the rather unclear guidance provided by the authorities. That has changed as of today – Governor came to Brooklyn today to talk about just that.

This morning as he confirmed 1,768 new COVID-19 cases (total in New York State is now 366,733), Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an Executive Order authorizing businesses to deny entry to individuals who do not wear masks or face-coverings.

“I’ve been working to communicate this message about masks and how effective they are. They are deceptively effective, they are amazingly effective. And we’ve made them mandatory in public settings, public transportation, et cetera,” Governor Cuomo said. “But when we’re talking about reopening stores and places of business, we’re giving the store owners the right to say, if you’re not wearing a mask, you can’t come in. That store owner has the right to protect themselves. That store owner has a right to protect the other patrons in that store. You don’t want to wear a mask, fine. But you don’t then have a right to then go into that store if that store owner doesn’t want you to.”

The Governor also announced New York State will distribute one million masks to hardest-hit NYC neighborhoods, in addition to the more than 8 million already distributed to NYCHA developments, food banks, churches, and homeless shelters.