Regional Reopening in New York State
“New York State on PAUSE” business restrictions and social protocols are set to expire on Friday, May 15. Governor Cuomo today stated he will discuss regional reopening plans in more detail tomorrow, May 11, and he revealed that there will be regions that are eligible to begin a phased reopening on May 15.
Nursing Home Protections
The Governor announced additional measures to protect residents and staff in nursing homes:
- If a nursing home has a COVID-positive resident that it cannot treat for any reason, the facility must contact the NYS Department of Health (DOH) for the resident’s transfer.
- All nursing home staff must be diagnostically tested twice per week for COVID-19.
- Hospitals cannot discharge a patient to a nursing home unless that patient tests negative for COVID-19.
- Residents must be referred to DOH if there are any issues with their care.
- Any nursing home operator that does not follow these procedures will lose its license.
All nursing home and adult care facility administrators will be required to submit a plan on how they will accomplish this testing and a certificate of compliance with these procedures to DOH by Friday, May 15.
Federal Assistance and Proposed Federal Legislation
The Governor reiterated that without federal assistance, New York State must cut funding by 20 percent each for schools, local governments and hospitals. He also stated that the State needs approximately $35 billion in federal assistance this year to compensate for COVID-19 losses. Finally, the Governor proposed a federal “Americans First Law,” which would state that a corporation cannot be eligible to receive government funding if it does not rehire the same number of employees that it had before the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 Numbers
Thankfully, we remain on the far side of the COVID-19 plateau. That said, the number of deaths in the State has increased by 207 since yesterday.
