Cuomo says reopening is an ‘entirely different situation’ than the past months of containing COVID-19

Governor Andrew Cuomo reminded New Yorkers at his daily briefing that going through reopening is taking on a different beast than controlling the spread of coronavirus.

Now that every region in New York State has reached some level of reopening, Cuomo stressed that reopening the economy is a much different situation compared to the past 100+ days of containing the spread of coronavirus.

“We’re now at a different point, we’re at the point of reopening the economy and moving forward on that, and that’s an entirely different situation than everything we’ve done up until now,” said Cuomo. “Reopening says, ‘how do you now restart the economy and control the virus at the same time?'”

Cuomo noted that there are mixed results regarding reopening the economy in other countries and that no expert alive today knows exactly how reopening should take place without error.

“This really is going down a path that no one has traveled successfully,” said Cuomo. “But if any place can travel it successfully, it’s going to be in the state of New York.”

With New York City in phase 1, plus Hudson Valley, Rockland and Westchester counties and Long Island reaching phase 2 of reopening, Cuomo reiterated that tracking the number of tests and positive cases is crucial to moving forward. New York State is testing more patients per capita compared to other states in the country, as well as other countries, and Cuomo stated that we can monitor the data to see if a resurgence of the virus is accelerated due to reopening.

“We do about 50,000 tests every day, and you know exactly where you’re doing the test and you know the result of those tests,” said Cuomo. “So you have that data. You can monitor what’s happening on a daily basis. Watch those daily numbers, and if you’re going to get into trouble, you’ll see it in the numbers.”

Cuomo reminded everyone that we all have a role to play in determining the virus spread.

“This has always been about what society does, it has been a social issue,” said Cuomo.