HITTING THE PLAY BUTTON

5 REGIONS OF THE STATE END MONTHS-LONG PAUSE TODAY

A large swath of upstate New York has the green light to start slowly reopening on Friday as the city continues to make progress in the fight against coronavirus.

Five upstate regions have met all the benchmarks Gov. Cuomo set for areas to begin reopening as the state recorded fewer than 200 coronavirus deaths for a fourth straight day.

“Phased reopening does not mean the problem has gone away,” the governor said during a press briefing at Upstate Medical University in Syracuse. “It means we have controlled the problem through our actions.”

Central New York, which includes Syracuse, will join the Southern Tier, Mohawk Valwholesale ley, North Country and the Finger Lakes in allowing construction, manufacturing and businesses to get back to work.

Cuomo said that there were 157 additional coronavirus-related deaths on Wednesday, the lowest daily number since late March. The city reported another 90 people dead from the virus as the death toll for the five boroughs reached 20,406 on Wednesday night.

There were 15,349 confirmed and 5,057 probable deaths from COVID-19 in the five boroughs as of 6 p.m. Wednesday, according to data released by the city Health Department on Thursday.

“We’re basically right back to where we were before we started this horrific situation,” Cuomo said.

The governor cautioned

New Yorkers to “not underestimate this virus” as cases of a COVID-19-related rare medical condition that affects kids and young adults, known as pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome, continue to trend upward.

State officials are now monitoring more than 110 cases of the mysterious toxic shock-like condition that has killed three children.

Mayor de Blasio meanwhile cheered progress in the city’s fight against coronavirus Thursday as the number of new hospital admissions, patients in intensive care and the percentage of positive test results all decreased.

“Today is a very good day,” de Blasio said during a remote briefing. “Three for three, a perfect day, New York City.”

The city is looking for deareas clining numbers in three — new hospital admissions, ICU patients and percentage of positive tests — before restrictions can be lifted. The city reports the three indicators with a two-day lag.

The number of people admitted to both public and private hospitals with COVID-19 symptoms decreased to 59 on Tuesday, a drop from the 79 admissions on Monday. That’s significantly less than the peak of 850 admissions to hospitals on March 31.

There were 517 people in ICUs at 11 public hospitals on Tuesday, down by 44 patients compared with the day before.

“That’s a big jump in the right direction,” de Blasio said. “That means you’re talking about fewer and fewer fighting for their lives, more and more people being saved.”

The number of ICU patients at public hospitals reached its peak on April 14 with 887 people.

Citywide, 11% of those tested came back positive as of Tuesday, a two-point drop from Monday. On April 12, 61% of those tested citywide were positive for coronavirus.

The city wants all three indicators to go down for 10 consecutive days or over a period of two weeks, and fall below certain levels, before some coronavirus closures end.

The goal is to reach less than 200 new hospital admissions for coronavirus symptoms, and fewer than 375 people in critical care in public hospitals. The city also wants to see fewer than 15% of the citywide tests come back positive.

“We are getting in range now of hitting all our numbers in the first half of June,” de Blasio said.

As more parts of the state meet the metrics to reopen, local governments must be prepared to take the lead on enforcing rules about which businesses can open and keep an eye on health and supply indicators to guide their actions, Cuomo said.

“Daily monitoring of numbers and daily monitoring of numbers and daily monitoring of numbers are the first three priorities,” he said.

The city has so far only met four of Cuomo’s seven benchmarks to reopen.

The total number of hospitalizations and intubations in the state also continued to fall, and the number of new coronavirus cases is “much, much better than it was,” the governor added.

Cuomo again called on Washington to provide relief funding to state and local governments, saying the state needs at $60 billion to make up for lost revenue since the economy was shuttered.

He offered support for a $3 trillion relief bill passed by the House that includes about $1 trillion for state and local governments and restores the state and local tax deduction – or SALT. He said restoring the SALT writeoff would be one of the best things that could happen to the state in terms of recovery.

The governor also said he spoke to President Trump earlier in the day and commended the commander-inchief for cutting red tape and expediting federal funds for the MTA.