Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 20, 2020 / 15:00 pm
New York's Catholic dioceses continue to push back on new coronavirus restrictions that have shut down more than two dozen churches in the state, despite there being no connection between churches and an outbreak of the virus.
Dennis Poust, director of communications for the New York State Catholic Conference, told CNA Tuesday that the state's dioceses "are not aware of any outbreaks related to a Catholic Church anywhere in the state, including in the so-called 'hot zones,'" identified by New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Cuomo announced at the start of October that there would be new "cluster" designations of "red," "orange," and "yellow" for zip codes that are experiencing new cases of the coronavirus.
For houses of worship located in the "red" zip codes, capacity is limited to 10 people, a figure which grows to a maximum of 25 for houses of worship in "orange" zip codes. Public and private schools, as well as "non-essential" businesses located in these "red" and "orange" zip codes were also forced to close due to the new restrictions.