GOVERNOR’S BRIEFING, Sunday, 4/26

Upstate May See

Reopening After

5/15, Cuomo Says

He Specifies Mohawk Valley,

Including Otsego, As One Of 1st

ALBANY – In today’s briefing, Governor Cuomo said Upstate regions – including Otsego County’s – may reopen May 15 if individual regions experience 14 days of declining coronarivus infection rates at that time.

In response to a question, he specified “Central New York, the North Country, the Mohawk Valley” as the region’s likely to be the first come out of the shutdown that began when President Trump and Cuomo declared states of emergency on March 13.

The governor said construction and manufacturing would start up first, and his administration has been talking with those sectors “to come up with specific plans.”

He also said a region must not open attractions or businesses that would draw a large number of visitors from outside the local area.  It was unclear if that would apply to the Baseball Hall of Fame Induction, which is still three months away.

“In the midst of all this we are continuing to monitor the public health impact because all that progress we made by flattening that curve we could lose in a matter of days if we’re not careful,” he said.

The plan will be implemented in phases and will be based on regional analysis and determinations. Based on CDC recommendations, once a region experiences a 14-day decline in the hospitalization rate it may begin a phased re-opening.

The State is closely monitoring the hospitalization rate, the infection rate and the number of positive antibody tests, as well as the overall public health impact, and will make adjustments to the plan and other decisions based on these indicators.

• Phase one will include opening construction and manufacturing functions with low risk.
• Phase two will open certain industries based on priority and risk level. Businesses considered “more essential” with inherent low risks of infection in the workplace and to customers will be prioritized, followed by other businesses considered “less essential” or those that present a higher risk of infection spread. As the infection rate declines, the pace of reopening businesses will be increased.
• There will be two weeks in between each phase to monitor the effects of the re-opening and ensure hospitalization and infection rates are not increasing.
• This plan will be implemented with multi-state coordination, especially in downstate New York. The plan will also coordinate the opening of transportation systems, parks, schools, beaches and businesses with special attention on summer activities for downstate, public housing and low-income communities, food banks and child care.
• The phased re-opening will also be based on individual business and industry plans that include new measures to protect employees and consumers, make the physical work space safer and implement processes that lower risk of infection in the business. The state is consulting with local leaders in each region and industry to formulate these plans.

“We’ve been talking about re-opening the state and re-imagining a new New York, and to do that we’re going to have to make governmental decisions in partnership with business decisions,” Governor Cuomo said. “Every business leader understands that we can’t just re-open and go back to where we were and what we were doing before – we have to move forward in light of the circumstances that have developed.