No Coronavirus Mask, No Service, Governor Cuomo Says

NEW YORK CITY — No shirt, no shoes, no novel coronavirus mask, no service, says Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

"You don't have a right to walk into a store and cause all the other patrons to run out," said Cuomo, who will sign an executive order Thursday empowering business owners to deny service to those not wearing facial coverings.

"People don’t have a right to jeopardize other people’s health."

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Brooklyn celebrities Chris Rock and Rosie Perez joined Cuomo Thursday in Flatbush, where the New York governor held his daily COVID-19 briefing, to encourage New Yorkers to mask up.

Explained Cuomo, "When you're from Brooklyn, they want a full fledged Brooklyn voice."

Rock and Perez, both sporting requisite Brooklyn fedoras, said they joined the effort because they've seen too many Brooklynites flouting Cuomo's order asking people to wear facial coverings in public spaces.

"When you see hipsters and yuppies walking around without a mask, is it arrogance?" asked Perez.

"Do you think you're not going to be affected? Okay fine, but I'm going to be affected as well."

Added Rock, "The kids really aren't wearing the masks and it's sad."

Their plea comes as New York City makes hesitant steps to reopen either next week or the second week in June.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has refused to clarify when the opening date might be or how the city will protect up to 400,000 New Yorkers who could be sent back to work and may need to rely on public transportation.

Cuomo also declined to specify when New York City might reopen or how the MTA might protect a new onslaught of commuters, stating simply, "The MTA has really taken the bull by the horns on this one."

The New York governor pointed city residents to the regional monitoring dashboard which shows the five boroughs have only met four out of seven benchmarks that must be met to reopen.

New York City still does not have enough available hospital beds, ICU beds or COVID-19 contact tracers required to reopen, the dashboard shows.

"We have to make more progress on some of the metrics," said Cuomo. "There are no special rules for New York City."

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