Currents News Staff
It’ll be one more month at home for millions of New Yorkers. Governor Andrew Cuomo has extended restrictions until June 13 for the most populous regions of the state.
Some areas that have shown enough improvement can ease those restrictions starting May 15.
Earlier, Cuomo said five of 10 state regions met criteria to begin relaxing social distancing, including a decline in hospitalizations and coronavirus-related deaths.
“I would urge local governments to be diligent about the business compliance and about individual compliance,” he said. “And then if you see a change in those numbers, react immediately.”
Binghamton is within one of those regions, and some business owners are getting ready to open again.
“I think it’s going to be a slow start as much as everybody’s eager to get out there do every everything” explained Tom Sheredy, a partner at Blue Culture Coffee in Binghamton. “So doing it in phases, I think ,is a healthy approach.”
The CDC posted step by step guidelines to help states reopen safely after most are already, or preparing to rollback even more restrictions.
Summer camps are allowed to operate in-person in Rhode Island beginning June 29 if all goes well.
Shoppers can return to Minnesota’s Mall of America June, and the Jersey shore will reopen by Memorial Day — with limitations.
“That’s a big step,” explained Governor Phil Murphy. “We take it very seriously.. and if we have to pull the brakes we will do that.”
But the moves aren’t fast enough for some demonstrators in Michigan, who are protesting Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s stay at home order and prompting law enforcement to close the state capitol.
Wisconsin residents returned to local bars and restaurants, some immediately after the state supreme court overturned Governor Tony Evers’ stay at home order.
“You don’t have to be a science person. You don’t have to be a politician to figure out you’ve got a lot of people in a place, and you’re going to spread a disease,” said Evers.
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, one of the nation’s top vaccine experts, Rick Bright, gave this stark warning to a House health subcommittee:
“Without better planning, 2020 could be the darkest winter in modern history.”
Bright testified before Congress for the first time since being removed from his federal position last month, giving a bleak assessment of the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic.
“We don’t have a single point of leadership right now for this response,” he added. “And we don’t have a master plan for this response. so those two things are absolutely critical.”
At least 48 states have plans to reopen by next week.