Reopening New York State

Today Governor Cuomo re-iterated that NYS on PAUSE will remain in effect until May 15th  and will most likely be extended in various regions around the State that are continuing to experience high infection rates. The planned stay at home order will continue while the State evaluates re-opening the economy regionally. He stated you can make the case to un-pause certain regions but the approach needs to be smart. 

There are ten factors the Governor outlined that must be taken into account for this process to be successful.

  1. The CDC guidelines – there must be a 14 day decline in infection rate
  2. Industry – Phase 1: Construction/Manufacturing – which construction and manufacturing projects could be accomplished safely?
  3. What actual business precautions would be in place, such as social distancing and health monitoring?
  4. What is the healthcare capacity for that region based on the ICU capacity, possible upcoming flu season and PPE stockpile when broken out by Regional Economic Development Corporation region?
  5. What is the testing regimen?
  6. What is the tracing regimen?
  7. What type of isolation facilities are available in the area?
  8. There must be a regional coordination for four main categories
    1. Schools
    2. Public Transportation
    3. Test availability
    4. Tracing capability
  9. There cannot be any “attractive nuisances” that would drive an increase of population density to an area, specifically when taking into account the surrounding areas.
  10. There would need to be “control room” in each region that would act as the epicenter for information gathering and processing.

Increased Antibody Testing

The State has currently tested 7,500 people for antibodies in its mission to gather data on the infection rate of COVID-19 within the state. To gather more specifics data they plan on extending this testing to 1,000 FDNY and NYPD employees, 3,000 healthcare workers, and 1,000 transit workers.

New York City  

Mayor de Blasio today announced New York City plans to hire 1,000 health workers to identify, interview and trace people who had contact with individuals who tested positive for the coronavirus.  The “tracers” will seek to ensure those individuals are aware of their contact and can self-isolate.  Anyone seeking to apply for a job as a “tracer” may apply by visiting the Fund for Public Health website. 

New York City also plans to open up 40 miles of streets to pedestrians, with a set goal of expanding to 100 miles in the future.  The move includes expanding some sidewalks with barriers set up in the street, which will provide additional open space to New Yorkers while maintaining social distancing

COVID-19 Numbers                                                     

We continue to appear to be on the far side of the COVID-19 plateau. That said, the number of deaths in the State has increased by 337 since yesterday to 17,303 total.