This Newsday story was reported by Matthew Chayes, Candice Ferrette, Joan Gralla, David Olson, David Reich-Hale and Craig Schneider. It was written by Olson.
Five of 10 regions in New York State began reopening their economies Friday, as an initial step in emerging from the coronavirus crisis that has shut down schools and nonessential businesses, though Long Island and New York City remain under a “pause” order that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo extended until May 28.
Nonessential businesses on Long Island and the four other regions that remain fully under the order will remain closed until their regions meet benchmarks set by the state, the governor said.
Long Island improved Friday in the daily tracking of health and preparedness metrics by the state, now meeting five of seven criteria to qualify for reopening. Nassau and Suffolk as a whole had slid backward on those measures Thursday because the availability of hospital beds in case of a virus resurgence had dropped below 30%.Explore the map or search for your community. The data shows concentration of cases.
Cuomo also announced Friday that state and local beaches statewide will be able to reopen the Friday before Memorial Day, with a 50% capacity rule and other safety measures in place. Counties and municipalities can opt to keep beaches closed, the governor said.
Cuomo said the state will monitor how well the beach regulations are followed, and if a local government either refuses to enforce the mandates, or a beach gets so overwhelmed that local authorities are unable to enforce them, “We will close the beach the next day.”
The number of New Yorkers who died Thursday of COVID-19 fell again, to 132, “down but still painful,” the governor said.
He displayed a bar chart showing the sharp rise in deaths in late March and early April, and the steady decline since. The number of deaths is now where the state was in late March, “when we really first started this miserable journey,” he said.
“New Yorkers stepped up to the plate and have done a great job” in observing social distancing, Cuomo added.
Upstate regions go first
The five upstate regions that qualified for the first of the four phases of reopening are the Finger Lakes area, the Southern Tier, the Mohawk Valley, the North Country, and Central New York.
Cuomo said the decision on where to open first was based on the monitoring of data such as hospitalization and death rates and trends, and the availability of hospital beds to handle a potential surge in cases.
A “dashboard” website shows the progress each region has made in hitting the seven benchmarks they must achieve to begin reopening.
In addition, Friday was the first day that low-risk business and recreational activities like tennis, drive-in movie theaters and landscaping and gardening work were allowed statewide.
Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, speaking from Eisenhower Park with the sound of bouncing tennis balls in the background, said tennis was “coming back with some modifications,” such as limiting matches to singles games only and using every other court. Golf is also coming back, she said.
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