Governor announces additional guidelines for when regions can re-open

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo recently outlined additional guidelines for when regions can re-open. The state will monitor four core factors to determine if a region can re-open:

• New Infections: Based on guidelines from the CDC, regions must have at least 14 days of decline in total net hospitalizations and deaths on a 3-day rolling average. In regions with few COVID cases, the region cannot exceed 15 net new total hospitalizations or 5 new deaths on a 3-day rolling average. In order to monitor the potential spread of infection in a region, a region must have fewer than two new COVID patients admitted per 100,000 residents per day.
• Health Care Capacity: Every region must have the health care capacity to handle a potential surge in cases. Regions must have at least 30 percent total hospital and ICU beds available. This is coupled with the new requirement that hospitals have at least 90 days of personal protective equipment stockpiled.
• Diagnostic Testing Capacity: Each region must have the capacity to conduct 30 diagnostic tests for every 1,000 residents per month. The state is rapidly expanding capacity statewide to help all regions meet this threshold.
• Contact Tracing Capacity: Regions must have a baseline of 30 contact tracers for every 100,000 residents, and additional tracers based on the projected number of cases in the region. The state is currently building an army of contact tracers with Mayor Bloomberg to meet the needs of each region statewide.

 

Governor Cuomo also outlined which industries and businesses can open in each phase of the state’s re-opening plan. 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. Regions must not open attractions or businesses that would draw a large number of visitors from outside the local area.

 

The Governor also outlined new safety precautions that each business must put in place upon re-opening to help lower the risk of spreading the virus. Businesses will be required to:

• Adjust workplace hours and shift design as necessary to reduce density in the workplace;
• Enact social distancing protocols;
• Restrict non-essential travel for employees;
• Require all employees and customers to wear masks if in frequent contact with others;
• Implement strict cleaning and sanitation standards;
• Enact a continuous health screening process for individuals to enter the workplace;
• Continue tracing, tracking and reporting of cases; and
• Develop liability processes.

 

The Governor also announced that more than one million New Yorkers have already been tested for COVID-19 to date.

 

The Governor also announced New York’s National Guard has made nearly 300,000 testing kits to collect samples, 60,000 of which are being sent to labs and hospitals across New York State.

The Governor also announced the special enrollment period through the NY State of Health Health Plan Marketplace will remain open through June 15, 2020.

 

“While we continue to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus, we can begin to focus on re-opening, but we have to be careful and use the information we’ve learned so we don’t erase the strides we’ve already made,” Governor Cuomo said. “Re-opening is not going to happen statewide all at once – New York has diverse regions and those regions have different circumstances, so rather than wait for the whole state to be ready to re-open we are going to analyze the situation on a regional basis. We will measure whether a region can re-open based on four factors – the number of new infections, health care capacity, diagnostic testing and contact tracing – and we will continue to monitor these factors throughout the re-opening process to prevent a second wave of the virus and protect the health and safety New Yorkers.”

 

Finally, the Governor confirmed 2,538 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 318,953 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 318,953 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:

 

County	Total Positive	New Positive
Albany	1,287	29
Allegany	35	0
Broome	334	7
Cattaraugus	53	0
Cayuga	51	0
Chautauqua	37	1
Chemung	126	1
Chenango	100	1
Clinton	68	2
Columbia	213	4
Cortland	28	0
Delaware	62	1
Dutchess	3,131	45
Erie	3,802	92
Essex	29	0
Franklin	16	1
Fulton	84	2
Genesee	159	4
Greene	154	3
Hamilton	3	0
Herkimer	63	1
Jefferson	63	1
Lewis	9	0
Livingston	85	2
Madison	217	66
Monroe	1595	29
Montgomery	56	0
Nassau	36,965	185
Niagara	493	19
NYC	175,651	1,320
Oneida	550	61
Onondaga	971	19
Ontario	96	1
Orange	9,015	48
Orleans	97	0
Oswego	67	1
Otsego	67	0
Putnam	1,026	13
Rensselaer	337	15
Rockland	12,095	70
Saratoga	367	4
Schenectady	535	8
Schoharie	45	0
Schuyler	7	0
Seneca	45	0
St. Lawrence	178	1
Steuben	219	1
Suffolk	35,077	222
Sullivan	976	25
Tioga	90	0
Tompkins	129	0
Ulster	1,354	13
Warren	192	4
Washington	188	2
Wayne	76	1
Westchester	30,097	213
Wyoming	69	0
Yates	19	0