Governor Andrew Cuomo says the "on pause" regulations he enacted in response to the spread of coronavirus will remain in effect through May 15th. Businesses have been shuttered and schools have been closed since mid-March, as the deadly outbreak began to unfold. Cuomo says a gradual phasing back of society must be done carefully, so as to not spike infection rates once more.
Over 600 people died Wednesday in New York from COVID-19, and the death toll around the Tri-state tops 20,000. Hundreds of thousands of people are out of work and tax revenue is sharply down for nearly all municipalities.
Cuomo is envisioning a plan that would have employees returning to work in waves, based off how essential the business is, and adopted safety practices. He calls this part of "un-pausing" the state, and adds it has to be done in a way the avoids a new spike in coronavirus infections. Cuomo says testing and "contact tracing" is vital to the next step in the process, so as to contain active infections. While a regional taskforce has been established to plan out the return to normal, Cuomo admits not everything will be in lockstep across the various states, but that they'll try not to contradict each other.
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