New York – The state of New York announced on Tuesday that the Capital Region region, where the city of Albany is located, will begin phase one of the economic reopening tomorrow in which, with this accession, all areas are already open except the metropolitan area and its two bordering regions, Long Island and Mid Hudson.
In his daily conference to update the statistics, Governor Andrew Cuomo explained that the number of deaths from COVID-19 on Monday was 105, compared to 106 on Sunday, and announced that the new infections reported for that day amount to 335, less than the 373 that were recorded on Sunday and at levels similar to those of March 20, before the peak of the pandemic.
Likewise, in New York State, the global epicenter of the pandemic with 28,339 deaths, hospitalizations and intubations also decreased, in this case with figures similar to those of March 16.
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Reopening and hospital visits
After meeting the last missing requirement regarding recruiting staff to trace the contacts of people testing positive for coronavirus, Capital Region will be able to begin its progressive return to normality in certain economic activities.
In addition, Nassau County will be able to resume its previous activity and begin to practice certain treatments and surgeries in its hospital system, whose infrastructure is no longer necessary for the containment of the virus.
In addition, Cuomo announced the start of a pilot project that will be implemented for two weeks in 16 hospitals, nine of which will be in New York City, to allow family visits in hospitals. These visits, he explained, will have a limited time and, before the entrance, personal protective equipment will be provided to the visitors and their temperature will be taken.
On the other hand, the governor insisted on the return to the activity of majority sports such as basketball, American football, baseball or hockey, and asked the franchises to start planning their return to the stadiums without an audience. “The state will work hand in hand with them,” said Cuomo, and said that they would help them broadcast their games on television to compensate for the lack of spectators.
Memorial day commemoration
On the occasion of Memorial Day, a holiday dedicated to the commemoration of those fallen into service, the state will allow small ceremonies with up to 10 people, although Cuomo clarified that local authorities may not allow them if they consider it a risk, depending on the reality of each county.
Vehicle parades will also be resumed to honor and recognize war veterans “safely.”
Likewise, Cuomo asked the federal government chaired by Donald Trump to be “as smart as the people who have chosen him” to launch liquidity programs for companies, which he said had to be “controlled”.
“We learned the hard way in 2008 what it meant to give uncontrolled millions of public dollars to companies and banks to stabilize the economy after the mortgage scandal,” Cuomo recalled. “And what did they do? The same people who created the scandal and those who saved the taxpayers distributed bonuses and made parties, “complained the governor, who fears that this time” something similar will happen.
Therefore, he asked that, if the government bails out companies, that companies hire the same number of workers they had before the health crisis. “Washington was very quick to rescue businesses and companies to keep the economy afloat. That’s fine. But who have they not financed? To state and local administrations ”, he added.
He also asked the federal government that the vaccine, regardless of the private company that the patent, be available to all people “and not only to the wealthy.”
“This is a public health issue, a threat to national security and should not depend on a company,” defended the leader, who demanded that the company find a formula that shares it with all the pharmaceutical companies in the world to guarantee that the pandemic to be stopped.
New York City to Open in June
For his part, the mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, returned this Tuesday to offer mixed data on the indicators of COVID-19 in the city, with increases in the number of new hospitalizations and those admitted to intensive care, but he maintained his forecast to relax restrictions in the first half of June.
De Blasio stressed that this is the last week of the school year and presented a summer educational program for children and adolescents who have not progressed academically enough to pass the course, a figure that in the case of children in grades 3 to 8, it has increased considerably from about 15,000 students last year to almost 70,000.
