Western New York Region to Begin Phase 1

Governor Cuomo announced today that tomorrow, May 19^th, the Western New York region will become the sixth region in the State to begin with phase one of the reopening process. The region had originally been over 300 people shy of the needed 521 tracers, but they have been able to identify enough tracers to pass that last benchmark over the last 24 hours.

Reopening Updates

The Governor revisited his recent priority of mandating twice a week testing of all staff at nursing homes by stating that the Department of Health will be providing 320,000 additional tests to assists with this mandate as well as reserving nursing homes with a combined 35,000 test kit slots to be performed per day.

Additionally Governor Cuomo stressed the importance and offering of State assistance “in any way possible” for professional sports teams to help them begin operation if they have the financial ability to hold events with no fans present in the stands.

Gathering and Analyzing Data

Governor Cuomo announced that it will begin working in collaboration with two new experts to advise New York on its data analyzation. It has begun working with the Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Michael Osterholm, as well as Dr. Samir Bhatt, an expert in Geostatistics and senior lecturer at Imperial College London.

These additional advisors will look deeper into to the information being gathered in New York and look to paint a more complete picture of what is happening now and what may be to come.

NYC Alternate Side Parking in Effect This Week
Alternate Side Parking resumes this week with the exception of Thursday due to the religious holiday, Solemnity of the Ascension. Alternate Side Parking will again be suspended next week.

Made in NYC Test Kits Now Available
As of Monday, testing sites will be using “Made in NYC” testing kits, overseen by the Economic Development Corporation.  The city will have 60,000 test kits per week by June 1.

NYC Antibody Testing
Voluntary antibody testing began today for 140,000 first responders and health care workers in NYC.  The general public can also sign up to get test at www.firstserosurveynyc.com or text TESTNYC to 783-78.

New York State COVID-19 Numbers                                                     

Thankfully, we continue to remain on the far side of the COVID-19 plateau. That said, the number of deaths in the State has increased by 106 since yesterday.