Regional Reopening

Today Governor Cuomo released his “NY Forward” guidance document broadly outlining the State’s economic reopening plan. The Governor announced three regions in the State will be eligible for Phase I of the reopening process effective May 15th: the Southern Tier, Mohawk Valley, and Finger Lakes have met the key metrics laid out by New York State in conjunction with the Center for Dieses Control reopening guidance.  

Highlights of NY Forward guidance: 

  • For each region there will be “Control Rooms” to monitor regional metrics to ensure each region remains compliant with the CDC guidelines and businesses remain compliant.  
  • The list of members of each Control Room can be found here.  
  • The State also issued a “dashboard” map of the state to monitor reopening compliance.  

Governor Cuomo indicated that in this first step of Phase 1, reopening will include:

  • Construction
  • Manufacturing and wholesale supply chain
  • Retail – curbside and instore pickup and drop-off
  • Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing
  • A more detailed “Industry Breakdown” of Phase I industries can be found here. 

Additionally the Governor announced certain low-risk recreational and business activities will open statewide on May 15th:

  • Drive-in movie theaters
  • Landscaping and gardening
  • Outdoor, low risk recreational activities such as tennis.  No further details on what other “outdoor, low risk recreational activities” will open.  

Below is where each region in New York stands currently.

New York City

Today Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Small Business Services Commissioner Gregg Bishop to become a Senior Advisor for the Small Business Task Force to help deal with the COVID-19 recovery.

Also, Mayor de Blasio was quoted in a Politico press article on reopening, stating “Unless something miraculous happens, we’re going into June,” he said. “June is when we’re potentially going to be able to make some real changes, if we can continue our progress.”

In addition to this, Mayor de Blasio also announced the alternate side will return from May 18-24 for street cleaning in all boroughs. After which parking rules will again be suspended for two weeks from May 25 through June 7 at which time they will reassess what the best plan is moving forward.

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 161 since yesterday. To help put some perspective on where the State stands, the hospitalization rate in the last 24 hours is roughly the same as it was on March 19, three days before the “New York State on PAUSE” program originally went into effect on March 22.