The city could consider reopening some nonessential businesses in June if key coronavirus case indicators continue to go down, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday.
“We have our daily indicators, the state has their daily indicators, we are all working together, they’re all valuable measures, by both sets of measures, we’re clearly not ready yet,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio during his daily coronavirus press conference.
During the conferences, de Blasio updates the city on three numbers that his administration is using to track the progress combating the coronavirus outbreak
The number of COVID-19 hospital admissions dropped from 69 on May 8 to 55 on May 9, according to the mayor’s office. The rate of positive tests for the virus also dropped from 17 percent on May 8 to 13 percent on May 9. Patients in an intensive care unit with coronavirus complications dipped from 540 to 537 over those two dates, according to the mayor.
During his coronavirus press conferences, de Blasio has repeatedly said decreases in those three categories need to be sustained for 10 days before the city would consider easing up on social distancing measures or reopening nonessential businesses.
“I think it’s fair to say that June is when we’re potentially going to be able to make some real changes, if we can continue our progress,” the mayor said.
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s March-issued New York On PAUSE Order was set to expire on May 15 but on Sunday the governor issued an executive order extending the legal authority of the shelter-in-place order until June 6.
This story was first published in amny.com. To sign up for the Gay City News email newsletter, visit gaycitynews.com/newsletter.
