Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, Governor Cuomo Announces Eighth Region Hits Benchmark to Begin Reopening Today

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the Mid-Hudson Region has met all seven metrics to begin phase one of reopening today, joining the Capital Region, Western New York, Central New York, North Country, Finger Lakes, Southern Tier and Mohawk Valley Regions. Long Island is still on track to reopen tomorrow May 27th when their contact tracing operation comes online and if deaths continue to decline.

The Governor also announced he will meet with President Trump in Washington D.C. tomorrow to discuss infrastructure projects that need federal approval - including the LaGuardia AirTrain, the Cross-Hudson Tunnels and the Second Avenue Subway expansion - to help supercharge the economy.

The Governor also announced the state will fast-track the construction of the new Empire Station at Penn and the new LaGuardia Airport while rail ridership and air traffic is down. To further jumpstart the economy, the state will work to increase low cost renewable power downstate and production upstate with building of new cross-state transmission cables; expedite a power cable from Canada to New York City and increase renewable energy resources.

The Governor also announced the state is continuing to direct resources and focus targeted efforts on reducing the spread of COVID-19 in lower-income and predominately minority neighborhoods in New York City that are most impacted by the COVID-19 virus and continue to see a disproportionately high number of new COVID cases every day. These efforts will help New York City meet the seven metrics required to begin reopening.

"We're turning the page on the COVID-19 pandemic and we're focusing on two tracks going forward - monitoring the reopening and supercharging the reopening," Governor Cuomo said. "We're starting to reopen in nearly every region all across the state - we have a dashboard available so every New Yorker can see the numbers every day and our regional control groups are studying the numbers and the data. As the reopening process continues, we have to supercharge the reopening to make sure that the economy doesn't just bounce back, but that it comes back better and stronger than ever."

Finally, the Governor confirmed 1,072 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 363,836 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 363,836 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows: