Blaz does not commit to timeline

Mayor de Blasio continued to express hope Friday that the city is on track to reopen by early June, but the Big Apple is still failing to meet two out of seven state metrics required for reopening.

The city continues to make progress on the three metrics it has prioritized: the daily number of people admitted to city hospitals and suspected of having COVID-19, the number of people in public hospital ICUs and the daily percentage of people who tested positive for coronavirus citywide.

On Friday, de Blasio (inset) noted that the daily percentage of people who tested positive for COVID-19 hit 5%, well below the 15% threshold and a record low for the city. The city also saw 391 people in Health + Hospitals’ ICUs, which is above the desired 375 threshold, but the closest the city has come to reaching its target so far.

“We are at the gateway of getting below that threshold and staying there,” de Blasio said. “This is really fantastic news.”

Despite the good news, reopening will be more complicated than merely hitting the metrics the city has set. During his morning briefings, de Blasio has been citing the city’s requirements for reopening, not the state’s. Three outstanding metrics are having 30% of total hospital beds available in case of an influx of patients, having 30% ICU beds available for such an influx and having 30 contact tracers per 100,000 residents.

According to the state’s data, the city now has 26% of total beds available, 29% of ICU beds available and is listed as “expected” to hit its contact-tracer target.

City Hall spokeswoman Avery Cohen said the city is working closely with the state and city health care providers to meet those metrics and is roughly “on track to meet them within those first two weeks of June,”