Western New York Gets Great News For Zoos, Museums, and Movie Theaters

We have gone up and down when it comes news about entertainment, in Western New York.  Today was one of the days when we got good news.

It's hard to keep up with.  What is the maximum capacity allowed at restaurants?  At zoos?  Are we in an orange zone again?  Are they doing the colors anymore?

Here's what we know:  In New York State, numbers of positive cases of COVID-19 are going down.  However, in Western New York, specifically Erie County, are numbers are the highest in the state at 4.8%.  That's nearly double the statewide average of 2.9%.  They are currently doing research to see why the infection rate is so much higher in areas like Erie County when they are going down elsewhere.

That's the bad news.

The good news is that Governor Cuomo announced that he is still going to increase the capacity levels on places like zoos, museums, and movie theaters for the entire state. Here are the changes according to WIVB:

• April 26 – Museums and zoos can increase capacity to 50 percent.
• April 26 – Movie theaters can increase capacity to 33 percent.
• May 19 – Large, indoor arenas can increase capacity to 25 percent.

Of course over the last couple weeks, it's been tough to get a ticket to the zoo.  The weather has been very nice so far this spring but due to social distancing guidelines they had to require that people pre-purchase their tickets.  It's good that they did because the tickets have been selling out like crazy.  Soon, they will be able to fit some more people in the door and still be able to do it under the guidelines.