I don’t think I am going out on a limb to say that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will announce later today that indoor dining will not be allowed when the city moves to Phase Three next Monday.

Given what Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at a Senate hearing on Tuesday.

Fauci told the Senate committee that he foresees 100,000 new infections daily in the US because people are going to bars and restaurants and not social distancing. “Congregation at a bar, inside, is bad news,” Fauci said. “We really got to stop that right now.”

“We are now having 40-plus thousand new cases a day. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around. And so I am very concerned … it could get very bad,” Fauci said.

The NIAID director cited that Florida and Texas had to close the bars in their states again because of rising new cases. Both governors said that as they reopened new cases did rise, however hospitalizations did not spike and there is plenty of rooms open for Covid-19 patients.

Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio often cite the spikes in other states as a reason for New York to slow down its re-opening, saying that visitors to the city could spike new cases in the city.

As I wrote on Tuesday, no one is coming to visit Manhattan as Midtown is still boarded up from the George Floyd protests and riots and many hotels are filled with homeless people or felons from Riker’s Island.

So I believe Cuomo will say he is delaying opening bars and restaurants for two weeks to see if new cases spike before deciding whether to open them up to 50 percent occupancy.

It’s a shame he did not use the same due diligence when it came to placing Covid-19 patients in nursing homes.