Governor Andrew Cuomo at a press conference in Rochester today (Photo: Mike Groll/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)
May 4, 2020 By Christian Murray
Governor Andrew Cuomo said that certain regions of the state may begin to reopen on May 15, the date the state’s stay at home order is set to end.
The governor said that the restrictions would only be lifted if a number of benchmarks were met.
He stated that upstate areas would likely reopen first. “The state has different regions that are in much different situations than other regions,” Cuomo said. “We will open on a regional basis.”
Cuomo made it clear that New York City is a region that would not be reopening anytime soon.
“If upstate has to be waiting for downstate to be ready, it’ll be waiting a long time,” Cuomo said at a press conference in Rochester this morning.
Cuomo laid out a number of benchmarks that a region must meet before he is willing to permit it to reopen. There are seven requirements that deal with items such as hospital capacity, declining COVID rates, and its infrastructure for testing and tracing.
Some regions of New York are closer to reopening than others.
Currently, no region meets all the requirements necessary to reopen safely and securely.
There is a lot of work to do. pic.twitter.com/OWaKHUeUUa
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) May 4, 2020
Currently, no region meets all requirements, although some are more closer to meeting them than others.
New York City meets four of the seven requirements. The number of available hospital and ICU beds is still too low—with the benchmark being at least 30 percent. The rate of hospitalization in New York City also has to come down. Cuomo is looking for a rate of 2 per 100,000 residents, while NYC is above five.
The governor also said that each region must come up with a plan as to how workers would return to their place of employment safely. The plan would include measures to ensure social distancing.
Cuomo said that once a region is given the all-clear its economy would reopen in phases. He said that the first phase would involve the resumption of construction and manufacturing; the second would be professional services, finance and retail; then restaurants and hotels; and finally schools and entertainment.
The data is showing signs that the worst of the COVID-19 is over. The number of coronavirus deaths took a significant drop to 226, the state’s lowest one-day total in weeks.
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20 Comments
I can understand to a point about not opening the city but really this is to much stay at home. People need to get slowly back on track.
Governors have authority over commerce within their states as per the separation of powers in the constitution…The President has no say and the Governors were right to threaten to sue to enforce their constitutional powers…those are just guidelines they are using as metrics for re-opening…they have the sole authority to re-open their states at any time they see fit without regard to those guidelines. This is our generation’s D-Day…time to charge up the beach knowing there will be a lot of casualties…we need to save our economy from serious long term damage and possible collapse…Sempre Fi
Nasty Lugosi – Yes the orange dotard with his extensive vocabulary and sound advice about “bringing” disinfectants inside your body is the ticket. LOLWho advises the orange dotard on how to apply tan out of a can?
Hashtager – These people who will lose their businesses because of the pandemic are rightfully blaming the orange dotard you helped into office. I will provide future links to help people distinguish propaganda from fact. Your attempt to misinform lie and spread propaganda will be exposed. Have you ever posted an original thought?
Where am i going to get my next meal Mr Governor? People are hungry and desperate. Please send help. I can’t afford to pay bills. This is a danger that must be addressed immediately.
Most of the small businesses will be ruined and many of them are owned by minority members
So much for Cuomo caring about new immigrants
He is a total fraud
Many of those workers are also women with kids
What are they to do? These are real people losing their futures to Cuomo and his ineptitude
Time to open it up !
The people who cut hair
Work in nail salons etc have bills also
not dealing with a Very Stable Genius here are we?
I can’t wait for the libraries to reopen. What are people supposed to do if they run out of books to read? The biggest obstacle to them reopening though is how to sanitize the books. This furlough from work wouldn’t be as intolerable if people could at least go to the library and check out books, or movies to occupy their time.
You know that the covid 19 virus can survive on paper, right???
Cuomo rambles on about his mother’s meatball recipe on TV and the media say Donald Trump’s briefings are lacking relevant information.
Considering Joe Biden’s brain has turned into a meatball, maybe Cuomo will wind up his VP pick.
Biden promised to pick a female but then again, gender is an artificial social construct that one can change at will nowadays so….
Lily- The ship is not under the governors control. Propaganda have you confused in a complicated world? Just google propaganda techniques and start there and assess how much of your life is controlled by propagandist.
Just can’t wait for opening go back 2 my job or look for another one if we wait till June. And also should be more hard in Queens people. Spanish people they dont care no mask. groups of 5 or more party’s and supermarket no gloves touching the vegetables and etc I left right away somewhere else’s to shop when I saw that.
ventilators ? hospital ship ? ? Can you put some ventilators on the ship, sell them and feed us. people have no money in nyc. its getting bad outside. so much tension. i worry.
To me, Cuomo is an ineffective Governor. He said he’s followed the facts from the beginning? Really? He was never proactive, just reactive when the cases started to rise out of control. Had he followed the facts, he would have surely closed NYC much sooner and avoided such a huge outbreak and unnecessary deaths. On a side note, notice that he never stands for these updates. So unprofessional.
New York City will be locked down for a long time. I’m sure the mass exodus will continue. No one will be moving in for a while. Maybe rents will go down and people could start living the right way, not 8 people in a 2 bedroom.
you all better wake up .. this has never left nor went away it’s the flu on steroids that is recreated..stay home until there is vaccine
Lol Cuomo. What are you gonna open? Most of small businesses will go extinct very soon. Sadly you won’t be able to collect your extortionate tolls and taxes anymore cause there won’t be anyone left.
So keep it closed for as long as you want.
Governor Mussolini needs to answer for thousands of nursing home deaths.
open the libraries the way we do supermarkets: masks, gloves, limited people, limited time…and maintain spacing…most have desks. The people who need them the most are the elderly and people with limited means. If you can squeeze a piece of fruit seems like a book can work out..
Please join the effort to help all Americans.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/tell-congress-american-people-need-emergency-money-people-act-pass