Who wants to move to Rochester ?
Parts of state start to reopen Friday, NYC is June at earliest
Rochester, Utica and Binghamton are set for a turn as the most happening hubs in the Empire State.
Gov. Cuomo cleared three upstate regions on Monday to launch their coronavirus comebacks — but even with Mayor de Blasio teasing a possible June reopening, the Big Apple remained far behind.
The Finger Lakes, Mohawk Valley and Southern Tier have met all seven state-mandated criteria — on hospital admissions and available beds, plus testing and tracing capacities — to ease back online starting at week’s end.
“Some regions are ready to go today,” Cuomo said in a press briefing at Rochester Regional Health’s Riedman Campus Training Center in Irondequoit, outside Rochester in the Finger Lakes region. “They just need to get some logistical pieces in order by the end of the week.”
Although the statewide PAUSE shutdown order has functionally been extended through at least June 7 for regions still battling the coronavirus, it officially expires on Friday.
At that point, the three green-lit regions can begin a gradual return to normalcy, starting with the reopening of social-distancing-friendly businesses including landscaping, construction, manufacturing and retail stores offering curbside pickup.
Some low-risk recreational venues will also be cleared to reopen, Cuomo said.
So while The City That Never Sleeps continues its fitful, coronavirus-induced slumber, residents in Gloversville (Mohawk Valley) could get in a game on public tennis courts and those in Elmira (Southern Tier) could catch a flick at a drive-in theater.
Other businesses with greater potential for contact, such as sitdown service in restaurants and bars, will come back only after an evaluation period to make sure the disease isn’t mounting a comeback of its own.
“It will be determined by the facts and the numbers as you go along,” Cuomo said.
New York City, which is considered its own region, remains the furthest of the 10 state regions from a reopening, with data showing that it has met, or is on pace to meet, only four of the seven metrics as of Monday.
Only 29 percent of the city’s overall hospital beds and 24 percent of its ICU beds sit unoccupied, each short of the 30 percent threshold for reopening.
And the city’s three-day rolling average of new coronavirus hospitalizations is 3.46 per 100,000 residents, well off the target of 2.
But an optimistic de Blasio suggested that the city might be able to begin reopening next month.
“June is when we’re going to potentially be able to make some real changes if we continue our progress,” Hizzoner said at his press briefing on Monday.
While de Blasio acknowledged the city was “still not out of the woods,” he said his confidence was bolstered by “good news” in its coronavirus stats, which have a two-day reporting lag.
The number of patients in ICUs for suspected COVID-19 in the city’s public hospital system went down from 540 on Friday to 537 on Saturday, while the number of people admitted to city hospitals fell from 69 on Friday to 55 on Saturday.
“That sure is heartening compared to where we were,” de
Blasio said.
The percentage of people tested citywide who were found positive for the coronavirus also dipped from 17 percent on Friday to 13 percent on Saturday.
“This is exactly the kind of day we want to see,” de Blasio told reporters via a video call from City Hall. “Now let’s see if we can stretch a number of these days together, and that will be a signal” to start loosening up restrictions.
Two more upstate regions — Central New York and the North Country — were at the goal line, having met six of the seven criteria for reopening.
The other four regions, including Long Island and Mid-Hudson, have each met five of the metrics.
Cuomo announced the first wave of reopenings as the number of daily coronavirus deaths across the state took a dive.
A total of 161 confirmed fatalities were reported in the 24-hour period ending at 12:01 a.m. Monday, down from 207 the day before, and the lowest number since 138 were tallied on March 26.
In all, 21,764 confirmed deaths have been reported statewide.
Not included in the official state count are the more than 2,600 presumed coronavirus fatalities in nursing homes.
“The number of lives lost [is] still too high, obviously, at 161, but better than it has been,” Cuomo said of the official daily toll. “We see all the arrows are pointed in the right direction.”
Some regions are ready to go today. They just need to get some logistical pieces in order by the end of the week. — Gov. Cuomo