Long Island Starts Phase One Reopening Ahead of New York City
After being closed for more than two months Long Island reopened as part of Phase One of the four-part phases to reopen New York state.The Long Island reopening, which happened Wednesday May 27, gave manufacturing, construction and retails curbside pickup he chance to get back to business ahead of neighboring New York City.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced days before the reopening that Nassau and Suffolk Counties, which make up the bulk of Long Island, could move forward if the last two benchmarks out of seven total are met. The last two criteria for the area to meet included if the number of deaths related to the Coronavirus continued to decrease and if online contact tracing for the region launched by the expected date. Contact tracing went live last night as number of deaths continued to decrease.
At the press conference at the New York Stock Exchange building, after participating in reopening the famed trading floor Governor Cuomo again confirmed that Long Island is to reopen today after meeting its last two metrics. “Long Island will open tomorrow. We’re going to bring on the last of the tracers, who do the contact tracing after testing and they’ll be coming online today, and Long Island will open tomorrow,” Governor Cuomo said. “As the reopening process continues, we have to supercharge the reopening to make sure that the economy doesn’t just bounce back, but that it comes back better and stronger than ever.”
Long Island entered Phase One of reopening, which includes commencement of construction and the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting sectors. Phase One also allows non-essential retail businesses to open but are limited to curbside or in-store pickup. Manufacturing is also able to start in Phase One as is wholesale trade. Meanwhile, masks and social distancing by remaining six feet apart are still the new norm.
Suffolk County has 39,199 total positive cases and 109 new positive cases and Nassau County has 39,974 total cases of the virus and 67 new cases. In comparison, other counties have as low as five total cases (Hamilton County). New York City has 199,301 total cases and 570 new cases.
Mid-Hudson opened during the same week after meeting all the criteria while New York City is the last region in the state yet to open as it awaits two more metrics.
