'I foolishly thought we had gotten past this': Several NYC restaurants close amid COVID surge

Diners in New York City.
(Image credit: ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images)

At least a dozen New York City restaurants and bars have temporarily shut down this week amid a city-wide surge in COVID cases, The New York Times reports.

According to the Times, the reported number of new cases in NYC has risen to an average of 3,554 a day, an increase of 135 percent from the average two weeks ago. And according to the CDC, New York and New Jersey are experiencing "the fastest spread of Omicron in the country with the variant now accounting for 13 percent of cases," per Grub Street. All the while, the Delta variant and indoor holiday celebrations continue to further complicate matters for restaurants, who are trying to safely deal with staff infections and exposures during this particularly profitable time of year.

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Brigid Kennedy

Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.