Wednesday could be big day for L.I.
Recent research found 17,500 fewer people would have died in the metropolitan area had lockdown measures gone into effect just a week earlier.
Looking ahead, Cuomo said the state is still on track to begin reopening the Mid-Hudson region on Tuesday and Long Island on Wednesday.
“We have to get the number of deaths down on Long Island and we have to get the number of tracers up,” he said, referring to staff the government is hiring to track down and interview people who came into contact with confirmed coronavirus cases.
Cuomo was speaking at one of several state beaches on Long Island that recently reopened — while the city’s sandy shores will remain closed for swimming for the foreseeable future, according to de Blasio.
State campgrounds and RV parks were set to open Monday, Cuomo said.
As horrifying as the state’s latest numbers were, the new cases represented steady declines from last month, when there were 3,181 new cases on April 3 and 763 deaths on April 8.
New Yorkers have been anxiously watching the facts and figures as authorities begin easing restrictions here and around the country.
“I don’t know if this is a lull or just the calm before the next storm,” Councilman Justin Brannan (D-Brooklyn) tweeted Sunday.
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Long Island is set to take steps toward reopening Wednesday — more than two months after Gov. Cuomo ordered all nonessential New Yorkers to stay at home.
Cuomo on Sunday said the number of COVID-19 deaths in Nassau and Suffolk counties needs to continue to decline in order for the lockdown to be eased. Hundreds of contact tracers are completing their training over Memorial Day weekend, the final piece Long Island needs to reopen some sectors of its economy.
The loosened restrictions mean that all manufacturing, construction and wholesalers can return to work with some social-distancing requirements. Some retailers on Long Island and in the Hudson Valley will also be able to open their doors, so long as they’re limited to in-store or curbside pickups.
The mid-Hudson Valley on Tuesday is also set to enter the first phase of reopening, Cuomo said. That leaves New York City as the only area in the state where all nonessential workers are still directed to stay at home.
The governor said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will add more cars to some trains on the Long Island Rail Road to ensure riders have space to social-distance as the economy reopens. The MTA in March cut LIRR service by roughly 35% as ridership on the railroad decreased by more than 95% from before the pandemic.
The longer train cars should allow passengers to keep a safe distance from one another as people return to transit, Cuomo said.
Train cars will continue to be disinfected at least once a day, and a statewide requirement for all mass transit riders to wear face coverings remains in place.
“We’ve never disinfected trains or buses before, we never thought we had to,” said Cuomo. “But we get it now.”