As three regions in New York prepare to begin a phased reopening on Friday, downstate areas including Long Island may have to wait another six weeks, according to Nassau County Executive Laura Curran.
Curran said at a news conference Friday that she expects Nassau County to begin the phased reopening. As of Tuesday, Long Island had met five of the seven criteria mandated by the state to begin the phased reopening.
“Just to give you a rough estimate, our back-of-the-envelope number, we could get there probably by the end of June,” Curran said when asked when the county will reopen.
The five metrics that Nassau met are having a 14-day decline in hospitalizations and conducting 30 monthly tests per 1,000 residents, having a 30 percent capacity of total hospital beds, a 30 percent capacity of intensive care unit beds, and having at least 30 contact tracers for 100,000 residents.
The two that it still needs to meet are a 14-day decline in hospital deaths or fewer than five deaths per day, and new hospitalizations of under two patients per 100,000 residents.
The region has made 33 percent of total hospital beds and intensive care unit beds available, surpassing the 30 percent benchmark required by the state. State figures indicated that the county is expected to achieve the contact tracing metric for 100,000 residents as well.
As of Friday, Long Island ranked last among the 10 New York state regions regarding the phased-in reopening. Long Island’s hospitalization rate went from 5.7 residents per 100,000 last week to 2.85 this week.
As of Tuesday, a total of 38,337 Nassau County residents had tested positive for the coronavirus, according to figures provided by the state. Of that total, 1,973 people had died.
Ten Nassau residents died of coronavirus-related illness from Saturday to Sunday, down significantly from the peak, Curran said.
“This increase of 10 is much smaller than we’ve been seeing lately,” Curran said. “If that continues we could be well on our way of checking off one very important box, that 14-day decline in hospital deaths.”
Hospitals throughout the region also saw declines within the past week. Officials from Northwell Health said its 19 hospitals had 1,067 people who had tested positive for the coronavirus, a 25 percent decrease in the past week.
NYU Winthrop Hospital in Mineola cited a 67 percent decrease in coronavirus patients since the hospital’s peak of 433 patients on April 9.
Curran said she has been encouraged by the region’s ability to get within two metrics of phased reopening after ranking last in achieved metrics on May 8.
“We are definitely going in the right direction and we seem to be going in the right direction rather quickly,” Curran said.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday that the first three regions in the state will begin phased reopening on Friday: the Finger Lakes, Southern Tier and Mohawk Valley.
The first phase of the plan, according to Cuomo, will include opening construction and manufacturing functions with low risk, so long as the health trends continue to meet the guidelines.
Curran touted the significance that the first phase of reopening will have on Long Island.
“Phase one for us means a lot of people will be coming back to work,” said Curran. “Seventeen percent of total jobs on Long Island are in construction, manufacturing and wholesale trade.”
Phase two, Cuomo said, is a more in-depth look at each business on a case-by-case analysis, and finding the best ways for them to reopen. He said officials will determine a business’ essential service to the community, the risks of reopening, and the importance of its reopening.
Cuomo said business owners must analyze the precautions and safeguards that will need to be potentially addressed for each individual business.
Two weeks must pass before the next part of the plan is implemented, Cuomo said, in order to effectively monitor its impact. He said two weeks covers the incubation period of the virus.
Cuomo said coordinating testing and tracing throughout the state’s regions will aid in determining when schools and transportation systems can safely reopen.
“We can’t now negate everything that we accomplished,” Cuomo said. “We have to do the opposite. We have to take this experience and we have to learn and grow from the experience.”
Cuomo signed an executive order on Friday to extend the state of emergency throughout New York state until June 7, while the New York State on Pause mandate will expire Friday.
