Long Island still does not currently meet the state’s requirements for reopening by Friday’s expiration of New York’s stay-at-home orders, but it is far closer to meeting them than it was last week.
Long Island now meets five of the state’s seven benchmarks to move into the first phase of reopening, which will reintroduce construction, manufacturing, wholesale supply chain facilities, and select retail with curbside pickup.
On Friday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order extending his emergency powers to June 6. New York’s statewide lockdown, known as “New York on PAUSE,” will still expire this Friday, but regions that don’t yet meet those seven benchmarks will remain under the same restrictions that have been in place since March 23.
Otherwise, starting this Friday, regions that meet all seven benchmarks will be permitted to move into the first phase of reopening.
“This is the next big step in this historic journey,” Cuomo said today. “We’re now on the other side of the mountain. The next step is, how do we open intelligently without taking a step back?”
The state’s reopening plan, he said, is designed to measure both the containment of any existing outbreaks in each region as well as the region’s ability to handle a new surge of infections after reopening.
The seven benchmarks measure rates of new hospitalizations – both total and adjusted for population size – as well as hospital fatalities and hospital capacity. They also require the region to meet certain thresholds in testing and contact tracing capabilities – at least 30 residents tested per month for every 1,000 residents, and at least 30 contact tracers per 100,000 residents.
Last week, Long Island only met two of those seven criteria – fewer benchmarks than any other region in the state.
Long Island is closer to reopening now than it was last week, but it still must fulfill all seven requirements before before the state will permit it to move into “phase 1” of reopening.
Long Island still has too many new hospitalizations each day when adjusted for population size, and it does not yet meet the state’s requirement for a 14-day decline in hospital deaths.
But the island now meets requirements for testing, as well as hospital and ICU bed capacity. Long Island does not yet have the contact tracing capacity required by the benchmarks, but it is expected to do so in the near future, according to a graphic from Cuomo’s presentation today.
Most of downstate New York also does not currently meet the benchmarks, including New York City, which currently meets only four of the seven requirements, and the mid-Hudson region, which was home to one of the state’s first outbreaks in Westchester.
As of today, the Finger Lakes, Mohawk Valley and the Southern Tier are all ready to move into the first phase of reopening.
Phase 1 will also include the reopening of landscaping and gardening companies, outdoor low-risk recreational activities and drive-in movie theaters, Cuomo said today.
The second phase will include professional services, finance and insurance, retail, administrative support, real estate and rental leasing; the third phase will include restaurants, food services, hotels and accommodations; and the fourth phase will include schools, entertainment and recreation.
Cuomo could not provide details about how long each phase would last. “How fast can you open?” he said. “Nobody knows. It depends on how smart you are in the opening.”
Cuomo also introduced committees for each region in the state, which he called “regional control rooms,” which will monitor infection and hospitalization rates to ensure that a region’s metrics don’t invalidate any of the state’s seven requirements to remain in Phase 1.
“You have to have a circuit breaker,” Cuomo said. “Slow down the activity level, because if you’re increasing the infection rate, nobody wants to be there.“
Regions must keep their rate of transmission below 1.1, which means that a person infected with the virus transmits it on average to only 1.1 other people.
New York’s stay-at-home orders have reduced that number to .8 statewide, Cuomo said last week.
“We just made it over the mountain,” he added. “Nobody wants to go back to the other side of the mountain.”
Long Island’s regional control room will include both Suffolk and Nassau county executives, as well as representatives from the Long Island Federation of Labor, the Regional Economic Development Committee and Empire State Development.
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