New York – The state of New York is preparing to start this Friday the first phase of economic reopening in three northern regions that meet the health requirements indicated for the containment of COVID-19 and among which is not the Big Apple, It is expected that it will have to wait until June, according to what authorities said on Monday.
In his daily update, Governor Andrew Cuomo noted that the state has returned to where it was “on March 19, before falling into the abyss of the COVID-19 virus,” after registering 161 deaths and 488 new cases. since yesterday, so “all the arrows point in the right direction” in view of the expiration of its executive order of “pause” this Friday.
According to the Johns Hopkins University count, of the nearly 80,000 coronavirus-related deaths in the United States, 26,641 have occurred in New York, the epicenter of the pandemic, where 58,000 people have otherwise recovered.
RELATED
“We have overcome the worst and now we can smartly move toward reopening, and that is on May 15, this Friday. Local regions across the state should start preparing and so should the people,” said the governor, who announced that at the moment only 3 of the 10 regions will be able to do it and are subject to “switches”.
These switches are seven factors reported by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including infection and hospitalization rates, the number of hospital beds available, or positive testing and tracking numbers, and which will be managed from “regional control rooms” by government, academic and health officials.
Three regions of ten
The three regions that will begin Phase 1 this Friday, which primarily operate construction and manufacturing businesses, are in the north of the state and do not include southern hot spots such as New York City, which only meets four of the seven factors and it will have to wait until June “unless a miracle occurs,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said today.
“June is when we will potentially be able to make real changes if we continue to progress,” said de Blasio, who warned against a possible boomerang effect if it reopens too soon in the epicenter city of the pandemic and contagion rebounds.
On the other hand, Governor Cuomo announced that certain “low risk” businesses such as gardening, recreational activities such as tennis, and drive-ins, which are accessible by vehicle, are to be reopened across the state.
Likewise, he said that the following phases will depend on the good progress of the CDC metrics, adding that “businesses, until the end of the school year, will be in phase one or phase two. They will not all be open, for What managing child care for workers who need it will be the responsibility of the regional councils. “
The regions’ compliance with the metrics for reopening, he explained, will be updated every 24 hours on a state website, and the authorities will review them every two weeks to decide if they can start with phase 1 or move on to the next. .
Cuomo, who cautioned against spikes in contagion in South Korea and Germany, congratulated citizens on their commitment to the rules and said the state will publish a guide to the reopening plan called “New York Forward” (New York forward) so they can “understand and hold the authorities accountable.”
