New York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks at a daily briefing during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the State Capitol in Albany, New York, April 29, 2020.
Mike Segar | Reuters
Five regions in New York will be allowed to begin a phased reopening of their economies starting Friday, allowing construction work to resume and retailers to reopen with curbside or in-store pickup, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday.
Cuomo signed a “‘New York State on PAUSE” executive order on March 20 that closed nonessential businesses and ordered residents to adopt social distancing measures across the state. The order will expire on Friday.
Five regions in upstate and central New York have met the seven measures outlined by health officials to begin a phased reopening of local businesses.
Phase one allows regions to resume manufacturing, construction and agricultural operations and retailers to reopen with limitations, Cuomo said.
Source: New York State
“This is all based on the metrics and the numbers,” Cuomo said. “The big responsibilities for local governments to manage reopening businesses are daily monitoring of numbers, watching for business compliance and individual compliance.”
New York City has only met four of the seven required criteria to begin its phased reopening. On Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said that his city is “clearly not ready yet.” He said “unless something miraculous happens,” New York City’s stringent stay-at-home orders will remain in place “into June.”
In order to begin phase one of the state’s reopening plan, regions must report two weeks of declining Covid-19 hospitalizations or under 15 new hospitalizations on a three-day average, two weeks of declining coronavirus deaths or under five new deaths on a three-day average and under two new hospitalizations for Covid-19 per 100,000 residents on a three-day rolling average.
A region must also have proper hospital and intensive-care bed capacity and meet an adequate threshold of contact tracers and testing.
“Phased reopening does not mean the problem has gone away. It means we have control of the problem because of what we did and because of our individual responsibility and our individual actions and that has to be maintained,” Cuomo said.
This is a developing story. Please check back later for updates.
