Bride and Zoom: New York governor allows remote issuing of marriage licenses
ALBANY, New York - New York residents will be able to remotely obtain a wedding license, so they won’t break coronavirus social distancing protocols.
Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa announced the executive order during Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s daily press briefing on Saturday.
After a reporter asked if the state was taking any action to help marriage bureaus, Cuomo looked to his secretary and asked if the state had any plans.
“We are today signing an executive order allowing people to get their marriage licenses remotely and also allowing clerks to perform ceremonies over video,” DeRosa said. “So, if that’s an avenue people want to go down, it’s available to them.”
Cuomo laughed in response to the announcement, before quipping: “Video marriage ceremonies. There is now no excuse when the question comes up for marriage. No excuse. You can do it by Zoom.”
The executive order was an otherwise bright spot during an otherwise sobering press conference. Cuomo had earlier announced 2,000 new cases and 540 deaths – each number a decline from the highs that the state measured over the past two weeks. The death toll was the lowest in the state since April 1.
The number of new cases has remained relatively steady for the past few days.
“We’re not at the peak, but this is where we were in late March when it started to go up,” Cuomo said. “We’re not at the plateau anymore, but we’re still not in a good position.”
New York state currently has 127,352 confirmed cases, with 8,893 deaths from coronavirus.