Cuomo extends New York lockdown until May 15

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has extended New York’s coronavirus lockdown by two weeks until May 15. 

Cuomo said on Thursday that while the rate of hospitalizations in New York is decreasing, it was still unclear how many people have actually been infected with COVID-19.

He said the unknown tally of infections is what is stopping him from reopening the economy because if people who don’t know they are infected return to work, they risk infecting countless others and wiping out all the progress that has been made. 

Only after May 15 will he begin to consider allowing some people back to work. Even then, it will be a phased return and businesses have to prove how essential they are and then how they can maintain social distancing among employees. 

Then, the workforce will be able to return gradually in percentages in the reverse of how Cuomo shut the state down. In mid-March, businesses first had to reduce their workforces in the office to 75 percent and then to 50 percent before 100 percent had to go home. 

Cuomo gave no confirmation that he would even lift the lockdown order on May 15 or on how long it would take to scale up getting 100 percent of the workforce out of their homes. 

He said he would make those decisions and others in coordination with other states in the region. 

 President Donald Trump’s social distancing guidelines are set to expire on April 30 and he has cited May 1 as a target for reopening the country. 

‘The close down has worked. However, we’re not there yet,’ Cuomo said. ‘We have to continue. I’d like to see that infection rate get down even more. 

‘I don’t want to project beyond that period – that’s one month. What happens after then, I don’t know. We will see depending on what the data shows.’

He said the current infection rate in New York is 0.9 but China’s Wuhan, where the global outbreak first started, lowered to 0.3 before the city reopened. 

CUOMO’S BACK TO WORK BLUEPRINT 

1) How essential is the business? 

Cuomo did not explain how he would determine which businesses were essential and which were not.

He said: ‘How essential is the business service or product or function, the more essential a business service or product, the more urgent the need to immediately get them back on line.’ 

The current list of businesses that are essential and remain open includes pharmacies, doctors offices, transportation, grocery stores, restaurants for delivery only and liquor stores. 

2) How can the business maintain social distancing among employees? 

The second part of the plan is how safely the business can operate in the climate of COVID-19.

‘What is the risk of infection spread of that business. 

‘Some can say, “I can open tomorrow in my business, I’ll have all sorts of precautions. People will not be less than 6ft apart, there will be no congregation, I won’t do conferences or meetings, I can bring them back put them at separated desks… businesses can start to redesign their work place to start to think that way. That’s the second factor,’ he said. 

3) Testing

Cuomo said that the blueprint relies on testing – both diagnostic and antibody testing – but that the federal government must step in to make that happen and make it happen quickly because the state does not have the capacity. 

He has made a direct plea to the federal government for FDA approval for a finger prick test that can then be used for 100,000 tests per day. 

He did not say whether employees had to have had a test and tested negative for COVID-19 or antibodies before they could return to work.  

 

The infection rate – which is how many people does one infected person pass it on to – was at 1.2 when there was an outbreak, giving a tiny margin for error. 

‘We are at .9 now after this entire close down. If you go to 1.2 you’re going to have a problem again. You see how narrow the window is.  

‘What does the infection rate mean? It gets a little granular but people have to understand it. The infection rate is how many people does one person infect, how fast is the virus spreading from one person to another. 

‘If one person infects less than one person, the disease is on the decline. If one person infects one more person, the rate of spread is stable. When you have a really situation out of control is when one person infects two or more people because the increase is exponential and that’s fire to dry grass. 

‘This is what we have to control as we start to reopen the economy. You turn the valve, we watch the meter. The meter is the hospitalization rate or the virus spread rate so you start to turn that valve, bring people out of their homes, you see that number going up? You turn the valve back right away. 

‘This is what we’re trying to deal with going forward. Nobody has been here before so we’re trying to figure it out,’ he said.

The extension of the stay-at-home order comes in the same week Cuomo and Donald Trump went head to head after the president called any governor who resisted his ‘total authority’ a mutineer and threatened to withhold coronavirus aid from them if they didn’t heed his call to reopen the country.  

On Wednesday, Trump said he was prepared to announce new guidelines allowing some states to quickly ease up on social distancing even as business leaders told him they need more coronavirus testing and personal protective equipment before people can safely go back to work. 

Trump said during his latest White House briefing that data indicates the US is ‘past the peak’ of the COVID-19 epidemic, clearing the way for his plans to roll out guidelines to begin to ‘reopen’ the country.  

There are now more than 12,192 deaths in New York from COVID-19. Cuomo said he still wants to see the infection rate lower more before he reopens the economy 

‘We’ll be opening some states much sooner than others,’ Trump said.

The ultimate decisions will remain with governors. 

Cuomo also defended his decision to enforce masks or face coverings in public.

‘I’ve had many people say they don’t like it. I understand that people do not like it. Some people think it is an imposition and a government overreach. 

‘Some people think the close down was a government overreach and this was all a fabrication and political conspiracy. 

‘To them, I say: If you don’t think 600 people died yesterday and it’s a fabrication then I will bring you to see the 600 people who died yesterday,’ he said. 

From tomorrow, all New Yorkers must wear a mask or face covering or risk receiving a civic violation.   

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk