Governor Cuomo announces elective outpatient treatments can resume in counties and hospitals without significant risk of COVID-19 surge

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced elective outpatient treatments can resume in counties and hospitals without significant risk of COVID-19 surge in the near term. Hospitals will be able to resume performing elective outpatient treatments on April 28, 2020 if the hospital capacity is over 25 percent for the county and if there have been fewer than 10 new hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients in the county over the past 10 days.

If a hospital is located in a county eligible to resume elective outpatient treatments, but that hospital has a capacity under 25 percent or has had more than 10 new hospitalizations in the past 10 days, that hospital is not eligible to resume elective surgeries. If a county or hospital that has resumed elective surgery experiences a decrease in hospital capacity below the 25 percent threshold or an increase of 10 or more new hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients, elective surgeries must cease. 

Further, patients must test negative for COVID-19 prior to any elective outpatient treatment. The State Department of Health will issue guidance on resuming elective surgeries.

Restrictions on elective surgery will remain in place in Bronx, Queens, Rockland, Nassau, Clinton, Yates, Westchester, Albany, Richmond, Schuyler, Kings, Suffolk, New York, Dutchess, Sullivan, Ulster, Erie, Orange and Rensselaer Counties as the state continues to monitor the rate of new COVID-19 infections in the region.  

Governor Cuomo also announced the state will take a regional approach to reopening and will make decisions on which counties and regions to open and when to open them based on the facts and data specific to that area. Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul will coordinate Western New York’s public health and reopening strategy, and former Lieutenant Governor Robert Duffy will volunteer as a special advisor to coordinate the Finger Lakes’ public health and reopening strategy.

The Governor also announced he will be meeting with President Trump at the White House Tuesday to discuss testing.

“As New York continues to flatten the curve of new COVID-19 infections, we are now ready to lift the restrictions on elective surgeries in regions where hospital capacity and the rate of new infections do not present a significant risk of a surge in new positive cases,” Governor Cuomo said. “It is essential that we continue to support hospitals and health care workers in all regions to ensure they have both capacity and supplies to treat COVID patients because this virus is by no means defeated.”

Finally, the Governor confirmed 4,178 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 251,690 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 251,690 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:

 

County	Total Positive	New Positive
Albany	704	17
Allegany	30	0
Broome	205	6
Cattaraugus	35	1
Cayuga	36	0
Chautauqua	25	0
Chemung	75	2
Chenango	79	1
Clinton	51	0
Columbia	113	2
Cortland	25	0
Delaware	49	0
Dutchess	2,331	47
Erie	2,147	38
Essex	21	1
Franklin	13	0
Fulton	27	0
Genesee	121	2
Greene	87	1
Hamilton	3	0
Herkimer	50	1
Jefferson	54	0
Lewis	9	0
Livingston	39	0
Madison	106	0
Monroe	1,070	16
Montgomery	37	2
Nassau	31,079	402
Niagara	260	5
NYC	139,325	2,519
Oneida	284	5
Onondaga	514	5
Ontario	72	1
Orange	6,561	79
Orleans	53	7
Oswego	49	1
Otsego	49	0
Putnam	605	6
Rensselaer	183	6
Rockland	9,568	111
Saratoga	257	3
Schenectady	273	4
Schoharie	20	0
Schuyler	7	0
Seneca	18	0
St. Lawrence	120	10
Steuben	170	3
Suffolk	28,154	492
Sullivan	555	11
Tioga	37	0
Tompkins	119	0
Ulster	893	16
Warren	102	1
Washington	68	3
Wayne	51	1
Westchester	24,656	350
Wyoming	36	0
Yates	10	0