The New York State Fair will not happen this year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday, marking the first time since World War II that that annual event has been canceled.
Cuomo said the decision to call off the fair this year wasn’t easy, but that it was the right thing to do in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"This year we're going to have to cancel it, and that makes me personally very unhappy, but that's where we are,” Cuomo said.
New York state has taken steps, in recent weeks, to tamp down the virus in vulnerable areas of the state and attempt to prevent a second wave of the disease. New York City will not allow indoor dining, for example, even though that’s allowed in other regions of the state.
But the State Fair is the largest event in New York to be cancelled since the pandemic began. The event has brought more than 1.3 million people to the fairgrounds outside Syracuse in each of the last two years, and is considered an economic boon to the region.
Central New York, the region that hosts the State Fair each year, is currently in Phase Four of reopening its economy, meaning that most businesses have been allowed to reopen under strict guidelines. But counties have still warned of large gaps in revenue due to COVID-19.
New York’s reopening plan has continued to move forward, largely unabated, since the middle of May, with most regions now in the last scheduled phase of reopening.
Cuomo said Monday that movie theaters and casinos will remain closed for the time being. The state is still determining how those businesses can reopen without putting consumers at risk from COVID-19.
Schools, meanwhile, have been told to come up with a plan for reopening in the fall, though the state still isn’t sure whether students will return to class or continue learning remotely. Cuomo said he wants schools to be ready in the event that the state allows them to reopen.
"In the meantime, I'm telling all school districts to come up with a reopening plan,” Cuomo said.
He warned Monday that large gatherings reported over the Fourth of July weekend could lead to an increase in cases, and called on local governments to step up enforcement efforts. Cuomo said the state’s rules on masks, social distancing, and large gatherings should still be followed.
"I get that politically it's difficult for the local governments to do it,” Cuomo said. “But it is the law, and if we don't do it, we're going to have a serious problem."
New York reported another dip in hospitalizations Sunday, bringing the total number of people hospitalized down to 817. There were nine new deaths on Sunday, among the lowest numbers reported by the state since the peak of the crisis.