Reopening New York: Cuomo Names Advisory Board
HUDSON VALLEY, NY — Several Hudson Valley leaders have been named to a advisory board of 100 business, community members and civic leaders to help guide New York's reopening strategy, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced at his Tuesday new coronavirus briefing.
The NY Forward Reopening Advisory Board includes Elizabeth Bradley, the president of Vassar College; Maria Imperial – CEO, YWCA White Plains & Central Westchester; Sabrina HoSang Jordan - CEO of Rockland County-based Caribbean Food Delights, Inc.; Dr. Belinda S. Miles - President, SUNY Westchester Community College; Leonard Schleifer – CEO, Tarrytown-based Regeneron Pharmaceuticals; and Kristine M. Young - President, Orange County Community College.
Speaking from Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, Cuomo said rates of COVID-19 hospitalizations, intubations and intensive care treatments continued to trend downward. He said 335 people died from the disease in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 17,638 in the state.
"The number is reducing, but not at a tremendous rate," Cuomo said. The number of new daily hospitalizations dropped below 1,000 a day, to 900.
Cuomo unveiled a 12-point regional template that must be met for certain businesses to resume after May 15.
Meet federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines of seeing a 14-day decline in hospitalizations rates.
Identify industries that will bring people back to work and get the economy going while abiding by social distancing. Phase one includes construction and manufacturing. Must identify businesses for the second phase.
What business or precautions are in place? Have businesses come up with plans and precautions to maintain a safe work environment, such as implementing social distancing policies, monitoring and taking workers' temperatures. Also have to ensure they're not creating an "attractive nuisance," meaning they're opening a facility or attraction that could draw people to the area from elsewhere.
Monitor health care capacity and ensure it remains below 70 percent, including with ICU beds. Hospitals should also prepare for an influx of patients in the fall from flu season and stockpile personal protective equipment such as masks and gowns.
Implement a testing regimen of 30 tests for every 1,000 people, as well as advertising, sites and turnaround time for results.
Implement a tracing system in place in coordination with Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Regions should have at least 30 tracers per 100,000 people.
Have two-week isolation facilities in place for people who get sick and don't want to quarantine at home.
Coordinate regionally on what to do with schools, transportation, testing and tracing.
Reimagine telemedicine.
Reimagine tele-education
Install a regional control room that can monitor infections and hospital capacity and hit an emergency off switch if the region enters a danger zone.
Protect and respect essential workers with adequate access to testing and equipment, as well as disinfecting public transit.
"We want to reopen, but we want to do it without infecting more people and overwhelming the hospital system," Cuomo said. He pointed out that parts of upstate have infection rates closer to the West and Midwest than to New York City or Westchester, Rockland, Suffolk and Nassau counties.
Manufacturing and construction will open in the first phase, resulting in 46,000 jobs returning in central New York.
Asked by a reporter about a backlog of unemployment benefits, top aide Melissa DeRosa said $3.1 billion has been distributed to more than 1.5 million people. The state is down to about 400,000 pending claims, she said, mostly gig workers and self-employed contractors. The state has hired about 3,000 workers to handle the phone lines and website.
"We're heads and shoulders above other states," DeRosa said.
By Daniel Hampton, Patch Staff
This article originally appeared on the Nyack-Piermont Patch
