What to Know
- Capital Region becomes New York's seventh region to begin Phase III Wednesday, resuming indoor dining and personal care. State daily deaths hit a new low (17) Wednesday; 10 weeks ago, 800 were dying a day
- New York City is in its second week of Phase I; Gov. Andrew Cuomo says it could move to Phase II Monday but Mayor Bill de Blasio says he wants to assess protests' potential impact before committing to a date
- Connecticut takes its biggest step yet Wednesday, reopening everything from bowling alleys to outdoor amusement parks, movie theaters and more. New Jersey will reopen personal care services Monday
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday that New York City is on track to enter Phase II of reopening on Monday, two weeks after it first ended its months-long shutdown. That was in stark contrast to Mayor Bill de Blasio's words an hour earlier, where he refused to commit to a date despite mounting pressure to do so.
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"The same metrics we've used in New York City are the same we've used across the state; they're shown to be accurate and effective. We don't change the rules for New York City, for Long Island -- it's one set of rules for everyone," Cuomo said. "Part of the phasing is allowing local governments to increase capacity and handle additional burden. It only works if business owners are ready."
De Blasio, who himself got tested for COVID Tuesday after feeling under the weather the day before and was negative, has said he believes it's more likely the city enters Phase II in early July despite ongoing good news on the COVID front. His office didn't immediately respond to Cuomo's announcement Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, de Blasio said it came down to monitoring the potential impact of the mass protests that overspread all five boroughs for more than two weeks.
"We're all mindful we had a very unique situation with the protests," the mayor said, noting that New York City's situation even before that was the most complex in the state and possibly the nation.
Since the virus has a two-week incubation period, de Blasio expects to know in the coming days whether the protests or even the city's entry into Phase I had any impact on COVID numbers. He said he is working closely with Cuomo's office to make a determination on Phase II and will make the move when he's confident the data supports the city taking that next step.
New York City is slowly but steadily getting back on track. Apple reopened 10 stores in the five boroughs Wednesday for the first time since they closed in March amid a then ever-worsening pandemic. COVID numbers continue to steadily decline across the board -- and many are looking to the next step.
Some, especially restaurants, want to see the process move more quickly. A number of them have quietly (and illegally) started outdoor dining, even though that is a step reserved for Phase II. Owners hope they'll be able to legally set up outdoor dining on Monday, but de Blasio's office has yet to give full guidance.
Daily Percentage of Positive Tests by New York Region
With all of New York state in some phase of reopening, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is shifting his focus to monitoring test results on a daily basis across each region to identify potential hotspots before they emerge. Here's the latest tracking data by region. For the latest county-level results statewide, click here
De Blasio said playgrounds in the city won't reopen until Phase II; Cuomo initially shut them down but recently said they could return at local governments' discretion. That's also the case with pools. The mayor says the city is working on a plan to safely reopen pools and lifeguards are training with the expectation they'll be needed this summer; he had no timeline.
"The second we open up playgrounds I think it's a safe bet they'll be filled 10 hours every day. You're talking about a huge number of people in close contact every day," de Blasio said Wednesday. "If folks act prematurely and that causes the disease to start spreading again, that the kind of thing that will undermine our ability to get to Phase II and stay in Phase II."
Once the epicenter of the national COVID epidemic with more than 20,000 virus deaths, New York City now has one of the country's lowest infection rates. A wrong move could have devastating effects; that's already happening elsewhere across the country. Cuomo urges New Yorkers to stay smart, citing data that shows COVID is raging anew in nearly half of America's states, most of which have had much looser reopenings than the one underway in New York.
Right now, the percentage of New York City residents testing positive over a seven-day rolling average is just 1 percent. That's a far cry from the 59 percent it experienced at the peak of the crisis earlier this spring. Statewide, that seven-day rolling average is also 1 percent.
Just 17 new daily deaths were reported overnight, Cuomo said in his daily briefing Wednesday. Ten weeks ago, New York was losing nearly 800 people a day.
Seven of New York's 10 regions are now in Phase III of the reopening process, with the Capital Region becoming the latest to take that step on Wednesday. The Mid-Hudson region is expected to join the others in Phase III on Tuesday, June 23, while Long Island looks to take that step the following day. Infection rates haven't seen a statistically significant uptick in the regions that have moved on to reopening indoor dining and personal care services, Cuomo says.
Will there be a second wave locally? The governor says it could happen -- and it could also not be the fault of New Yorkers. That keeps him up at night.
"You look at what’s going on around the country now with the spike and the number of viral transmissions. That is frightening," he told "Good Morning America" Wednesday. "New York is not an island. We can be doing a great job and getting the spread down and the rate of transmission down, but people travel here from other states."
Cuomo accused the federal government of making a "historic" mistake on its handling of the COVID crisis and the guidelines it's issuing to states. He didn't mention by name President Donald Trump, who will hold his first large-scale campaign rally since the pandemic hit in Tulsa, Oklahoma this weekend. Asked if he would attend one of the events, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said "of course not" because coronavirus is still spreading.
"These policies have huge consequences. There's going to be real life-and-death consequences to this," Cuomo said Wednesday, citing new, higher death projections from the Fauci-backed IHME virus model. "This policy has increased the number of people they project to die by almost 90,000."
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is equally as conscious of the need to proceed with caution. The state just entered Stage 2 of Murphy's reopening roadmap two days ago, resuming outdoor dining, child care, in-person retail and library pickup, among other services. Some towns threatened to defy Murphy's orders, saying the reopening needs to move more quickly for businesses to survive.
Murphy says he's comfortable with the state's reopening timeline and doesn't want to rush it for fear of inciting a viral resurgence he fears could happen at some point anyway. He's particularly concerned about indoor businesses. Some of those -- barbershops, nail salons and massage parlors -- are slated to open on Monday, June 22. The health department has released new safety guidelines.
New Jersey has struggled on some core metrics over the last month. As of Tuesday, it had reclaimed the dubious distinction of the state with the most daily deaths per 100,000 residents, Murphy said. It ranks fourth among U.S. states in total hospitalizations per 100,000 residents but has fallen to 32nd on new cases.
"We're not out of the woods yet," Murphy said Tuesday. "Let’s keep working to get to Stage 3 of our restart and recovery. Keep up with social distancing. Common sense for the common good."
Connecticut, the least hard-hit of the tri-states amid the COVID outbreak and the most aggressive of the three on reopening, takes its biggest step yet Wednesday as it moves into a phase that allows 95 percent of its economy to restart.
Gov. Ned Lamont said the state's rate of COVID-19 infection is among the “best five or six states in the country," signaling that the state was ready to reopen indoor dining, outdoor amusement parks, libraries, tattoo parlors, nail salons, gyms, pools, bowling alleys, museums, zoos, aquariums and movie theaters. Those reopen at 50 percent capacity with mask and social distancing mandates.
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