(PatrioticPost.com)- Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Friday that New York’s lockdown measures will be extended for another month, until June 13. The announcement wasn’t so clear-cut, however, as Cuomo did explain that some areas in the state would be allowed to reopen businesses if they meet some specific criteria.
It comes as the infection rate in New York begins to slow down, but while the threat of a second spike looms.
Cuomo said that Central New York, Finger Lake, Southern Tier, North County, and Mohawk Valley can go ahead and start reopening some businesses under Phase One of the federal reopening plan. It is a result of the regions having fewer cases than other parts of the state, and the facilities required to deal with a spike if it happened.
According to CBS New York, regions in the state may initiate Phase One of the reopening plan if that show that they have had a total of two weeks of decline in hospitalizations and fatalities, on a “three-day rolling average.” States must then have no more than 15 new coronavirus cases, or five deaths, within a period of three days. If they exceed this, they will have to roll back to the previous phase.
Regions must also have less than two new patients per every 100,000 residents each day, and hospitals cannot go beyond 70% capacity, including intensive care unit beds. All hospitals must keep 30% of beds available in case a spike occurs.
On top of this, hospitals must (reasonably!) have a stockpile of personal protective equipment that would last 90 days, and have 30 coronavirus tests per 1,000 residents. All in all, these requirements are quickly becoming achievable for many hospitals across New York, and the measures ensure that people will not be denied treatment or a bed if coronavirus cases begin to spike.
Regions that want to reopen also need to have 30 contact tracers working for every 100,000 residents, and present a risk/reward analysis of which businesses they think can safely reopen.
The measures are substantially different from the ones put in place by fellow Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom. The California governor announced days ago that California’s excessive stay-at-home order has been extended for a further few months.
While some Democrats seem to realize that people won’t treat them kindly at the ballots if they restrict their freedoms, others seem far too willing to bankrupt themselves in the name of keeping people at home.
