***Wappinger Town and New York State COVID-19 Restrictions Lift as State Reaches 70% Vaccination Rate***
On June 15, 2021, NYS Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that state-mandated COVID restrictions on commercial and social settings will be lifted effective immediately.
Those commercial and social settings include the following: sports and recreation, construction, manufacturing, trade, child care, camps, food services, offices, real estate, buildings, agriculture, fishing, forestry, amusement and family entertainment, personal care services, gyms, retail, malls, movie theaters, and other commercial settings.
According to the Governor’s Office, “Unvaccinated individuals are responsible for maintaining social distancing of six feet and wearing a mask, per CDC Guidance. Large-Scale Events Venues, Pre-K to 12 Schools, Public Transit, Homeless Shelters, Correctional Facilities, Nursing Homes and Health Care Settings will be exempt and will still adhere to the State’s existing COVID-19 Health Protocols.”
As a reminder, until the New York Forward industry guidance is lifted at the 70 percent vaccination rate, the following are current summary health guidelines that apply across most commercial and social settings. Further details can be found here.
Capacity – Capacity is only limited by the space available for individuals or parties of individuals to maintain the required social distancing based on vaccination status. For fully vaccinated individuals/parties, no social distancing is required.
Businesses may require proof of full vaccination status through paper form, digital application, or the State’s Excelsior Pass. Alternatively, businesses may rely upon self-reporting of vaccination status.
Distancing – Fully vaccinated individuals do not need to be socially distanced and unvaccinated/unknown individuals need to maintain six feet of social distance. In lieu of six feet of social distance, appropriate physical barriers may be used so long as they do not present a health or safety hazard.
Masks – Fully vaccinated individuals do not need to wear masks and unvaccinated/unknown individuals need to wear masks. Unvaccinated/unknown individuals may only remove their mask indoors while socially distanced, seated, and eating/drinking and outdoors while maintaining social distancing of six feet and, if in an event or gathering setting, seated.
Hand Hygiene – Hand hygiene stations or supplies must be provided for individuals to use; specifically, hand washing, such as soap, running water or disposable towels or hand sanitizing, such as alcohol-based sanitizer with 60 percent or more alcohol where hand washing may not be available or practical.
Cleaning and Disinfection – Clean and disinfect high-touch surfaces at least once a day, such as common areas and shared workstations and regularly clean and disinfect other surfaces as necessary given the level of traffic and type of individuals who use the space and general risk of community transmission of COVID-19.
Communication – Clearly communicate to individuals through signage, markers, and other applicable methods the health precautions that are in effect within the specific setting based upon these principles and any other restrictions that the business may choose to implement, such as capacity limits, social distancing, masks, or hand hygiene.
Ventilation and Air Filtration – For indoor environments, increase outdoor airflow and ventilation rates to the extent compatible with individual comfort and safety, in accordance with building codes and standards; in indoor areas where air is recirculated, ensure HVAC system filtration meets the highest rated filtration compatible with the currently installed filter rack and air handling systems, ideally a minimum of MERV-13, industry equivalent, or greater, as applicable for the specific environment; and deploy other appropriate indoor air quality measures and engineering controls, such as portable fans, filters, and air cleaners as necessary.
Gatherings and Events – For gatherings or events that exceed the State’s social gathering limit of 250 indoors or 500 outdoors, these additional provisions apply, consistent with the State’s implementation of the CDC guidance:
Proof of Vaccination – For any setting where there is a concentrated gathering of persons above the social gathering limits without social distancing, proof of vaccination status must be required; self-reporting of vaccination status cannot be used. Event venues can operate up to 100 percent capacity so long as all attendees are fully vaccinated, consistent with applicable federal and state laws and regulations.
To attend indoor events above the gathering limit, attendees over the age of four who are not presenting proof of full vaccination status must instead present proof of recent negative COVID-19 test result, such as a PCR/NAAT test within 72 hours or antigen within 6 hours prior to admission. Outdoor events do not require proof of recent negative COVID-19 test result for unvaccinated/unknown individuals.
Health Screening – All individuals must be health screened for COVID-19 symptoms, recent close contacts, and recent positive COVID-19 test result, prior to, or immediately upon, arrival to the event. Screening may be performed via signage, at ticket purchase, by e-mail/website, by telephone, or by electronic survey before individuals enter the event space. Temperature checks are no longer required.
Contact Information – At least one individual from each party of attendees should sign-in during ticketing, or before or immediately upon entering the event space, providing their name, address, and phone number or e-mail address for use in potential contact tracing efforts. Sign-in process may be conducted through any means, including but not limited to a digital application and/or paper form. Sign-in data should be maintained for a minimum period of 28 days and made available to state and local health departments upon request.
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Update from County Executive Molinaro
May 29, 2020
Phase Two Update
Phase 2 guidance has been posted in anticipation of our region moving into Phase 2 on June 9th.
You can access the guidance via the New York Forward website.
- Phase 2 Guidance Direct Link
- Phase 1 Guidance Direct Link
- Business Lookup Tool
- New Executive Order Extending New York on PAUSE
Businesses impacted by Phase 2 include:
- Office-based jobs
- Real Estate
- Essential and Phase 2 In-Store Retail
- Vehicle Sales, Leases, and Rentals
- Retail Rental, Repair and Cleaning
- Commercial Building Management
- Hair Salons and Barbershops
Pursuant to the Governor’s Executive Orders, the following businesses remain closed during Phase 2:
- Malls; specifically, any indoor common portions of retail shopping malls with 100,000 or more square feet of retail space available for lease; however, any stores located within shopping malls, which have their own external entrances open to the public, separate from the general mall entrance (e.g. strip malls), may open;
- Dine-in and on-premise restaurant or bar service, excluding take-out or delivery for off-premise consumption;
- Large gathering/event venues, including but not limited to establishments that host concerts, conferences, or other in-person performances or presentations in front of an in-person audience;
- Gyms, fitness centers, and exercise classes, except for remote or streaming services;
- Video lottery and casino gaming facilities;
- Movie theaters, except drive-ins; and
- Places of public amusement, whether indoors or outdoors, including but not limited to, locations with amusement rides, carnivals, amusement parks, water parks, aquariums, zoos, arcades, fairs, children’s play centers, funplexes, theme parks, bowling alleys, family and children’s attractions.
5/5/2020 – Dutchess Business Notification Network Update including Webinars and helpful links
March 27, 2020
The Governor has defined essential construction services in part 9 of Executive Order 202.6. That section is also pasted below:
“9. ConstructionAll non-essential construction must shut down except emergency construction, (e.g. a project necessary to protect health and safety of the occupants, or to continue a project if it would be unsafe to allow to remain undone until it is safe to shut the site).Essential construction may continue and includes roads, bridges, transit facilities, utilities, hospitals or health care facilities, affordable housing, and homeless shelters. At every site, if essential or emergency non-essential construction, this includes maintaining social distance, including for purposes of elevators/meals/entry and exit. Sites that cannot maintain distance and safety best practices must close and enforcement will be provided by the state in coordination with the city/local governments. This will include fines of up to $10,000 per violation.For purposes of this section construction work does not include a single worker, who is the sole employee/worker on a job site.”
Below are updates and resources for businesses, employers, and employees. Please feel free to forward this information to anyone you believe would benefit.
IMPORTANT: Share Your Organization’s Needs: Complete the survey online.
Join the Dutchess Business Notification Network Facebook group.
Update for Wednesday, March 25, 2020:
- The New York Small Business Development Council has created a website designed to help businesses navigate the Economic Injury Disaster Loan process. It can be found HERE.
- Governor Cuomo has created a new website that will be used to update individuals and businesses on the new paid leave measures. The page is still in it’s basic stages but updates are expected. It can be found HERE.
- Governor Cuomo requested the federal government relief for more categories of workers. This would include unemployed gig economy workers, farmers, independent contractors and others. For more information, please read THIS ARTICLE.
- For information on the liquor authorities guidance on the sale of delivery and to-go alcoholic beverages, click HERE.
- If you are forced to reduce your employees’ pay during this downturn, you would still be required to provide that employee a new Wage Acknowledgement Form. For model versions of the form, please see HERE. Additionally, if you are forced to lay off an employee, you must provide them with the required Record of Employment.
- Part of the stimulus package being proposed at the federal level will boost the SBA’s 7A program. The 7A program will be managed by local SBA lender banks. So the advice to local businesses and nonprofits is to compile all of your financial documents as you would to secure any loan. Please note that it will take a few days for the SBA to provide all required information to SBA lender banks about the 7A program AFTER it is signed into law. They DON’T have ANY information at this time.
- The way the legislation is structured 7A loans will be eligible to “forgive” costs associated with payroll, utilities, mortgages, rents, and debt payments. There will be a cap on the amount that can be forgiven but that is not yet known. This means these 7A loans are more like grants and are designed to allow employers to retain employees.
- The 7A program will be for businesses and nonprofits with less than 500 employees and does cover self-employed or sole proprietors adversely impacted by COVID 19. The fees for the 7A program will be waived. As more information is released, we will provide links and more information. This may change as the legislative process continues, but we wanted to inform you on what is currently being considered.
- On Monday March 30, at 9AM, Patterns for Progress will host a web panel as they discuss how the housing industry has been impacted by COVID-19. They will discuss how real estate transactions, lending, and title processing has been affected by this crisis, and what that means for Homeowners, Buyers, Sellers, Landlords, tenants, and employers in this industry. You can watch this webinar on March 30, at 9AM on their FACEBOOK PAGE.
If you have any questions regarding the information in this notification or any other business related concerns and suggestions, please email Contact@DutchessBNN.com. Please do NOT contact elected officials regarding information in this email as they are currently inundated with handling the government response to this crisis. This network was created to help coordinate responses and share the burden, and we ask that you please contact us with any questions or concerns so our elected officials can focus on their task at hand. Thank you for your continued support through this time.
Resources With Links
United States Small Business Administration
New York State Economic Development
Guidance for Exempt Businesses in New York
New York State Department of Labor
Dutchess Tourism Open Restaurant List
Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce
Dutchess County Workforce Investment Board
If you were forwarded this email but would like to be added to the email list, please let us know by emailing contact@DutchessBNN.com
Most Recent Updates for Wappinger Businesses
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- The Small Business Administration has now made low interest loans of up to $2 million available to organizations in New York. It will take roughly 3 weeks to process the application and has interest rates of 3.75 % for small businesses and 2.75 % for nonprofits. For more information, click the SBA link below.
- In Governor Cuomo’s press conference Monday, March 23, 2020, he announced he is mandating that all hospitals increase their bed capacity by 50%, and is asking that any hospital that can increase their capacity by 100% to do so.
- He also announced he would be issuing an Executive Order later today that would enlist all registered nurses in New York to assist health centers during the crisis, including any nurse currently working at an insurance firm. When this order is published we will post it onto our Facebook page.
- Governor Cuomo also announced that he has instructed his team to begin formulating the NY FORWARD plan, in preparation of reopening businesses when it is deemed appropriate. He did not indicate a timeline of this plan being initiated since the spread of the virus has not yet been contained, but said they would look into ways to have health individuals return to work.
- Governor Cuomo has issued an executive order expanding the Tax Commissioner’s authority to abate late filing and payment penalties. This will allow the Commissioner to abate interest on quarterly and annual sales and use tax filings and remittances with a due date of March 20, 2020, for those who were unable to timely file and pay as result of the COVID-19 virus.
- The above is available HERE.
- An Interim Guidance to Restaurants to Sell Grocery Items has been released by the state’s Department of Agriculture and Markets.
- The above is available HERE.
- In Governor Cuomo’s press conference on Sunday, March 22, 2020 he announced that all elective, non-emergency surgeries must be cancelled effective Wednesday.
- Reminder: All non-essential businesses are mandated to have 100% of their employees work from home beginning (Sunday) at 8PM.
- Guidance on who is considered exempt from the Executive Order HERE. The list is also posted further down in this email. We have asked elected officials for consideration to create an unemployment program for small business owners.
- If you are not on the list of exempt businesses, but believe you should be, you can request a waiver from Empire State Development HERE.
- Clarification has been sent by the state to confirm that the construction exemption listed in the Governor’s Executive Order applies to “all construction.”
- Yesterday (Saturday), Governor Cuomo released two new Executive Orders pertaining to COVID-19. The First order can be found HERE and the second order can be found HERE. The summary bullet points are as follows:
- Court operations are now limited to essential matters and any time limit that would pass while this order is in effect is suspended.
- Driver licenses and vehicle registrations that expired after March 1, 2020 are to be considered valid until the executive order is rescinded.
- Evictions or foreclosures on both individuals and corporate entities are suspended for 90 days.
- The payment of sales tax from businesses to the state is deferred for 60 days.
- Financial institutions are required to provide any consumer an opportunity for a forbearance of payments for a mortgage for any person or entity facing a financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the applications must be granted “in all reasonable and prudent circumstances.”
- Fees for the use of ATMs, overdraft fees and credit card late fees, may be restricted by the Superintendent of the Department of Financial Services.
If you have any questions regarding the information in this notification or any other business related concerns and suggestions, please email Contact@DutchessBNN.com. Please do NOT contact elected officials regarding information in this email as they are currently inundated with handling the government response to this crisis. This network was created to help coordinate responses and share the burden, and we ask that you please contact us with any questions or concerns so our elected officials can focus on their task at hand. Thank you for your continued support through this time.
Please sign up for the Dutchess Business Notification Network (DBNN) which pushes out the latest information related to COVID-10 for the business community.
Registrants will also receive a survey this week so that we can determine what their latest and future needs are so we can find solutions and request assistance from the appropriate agency or government.
If a small business needs immediate cash flow, they can apply for an Emergency Express Loan with Community Capital New York (CCNY) for up to $10,000 with expedited closing. Please see the terms in the link https://lnkd.in/dNiHUGP