Gov. Andrew Cuomo is quietly keeping his finger on New York’s “Pause” button — essentially extending stay-at-home and mask-wearing directives to June 7.
However, any of the state’s seven regions will still be able to phase in re-openings sooner if they meet a series of benchmarks.
Those benchmarks include a decline in hospitalizations and deaths, and a 30 percent vacancy rate in ICU and regular hospital beds as safeguard against a sudden spike in sicknesses.
The ban on non-essential gatherings continues as the state’s coronavirus death toll exceeded 21,000 on Saturday.
The ongoing restrictions, extended without fanfare by the governor on Thursday and Friday, sparked a small protest outside City Hall on Saturday afternoon.
Thirty protesters, many not wearing masks and some carrying American flags and “Reopen NY” signs, were met by a contingent of cops, who arrested nine people on charges they did not observe social distancing guidelines.
“To completely shut down the entire state for another three weeks does not make sense when some counties have few cases,” Staten Island Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis said.
“Right here in NYC, affordable housing construction and city sewer projects are taking place with DOZENS of workers but other outdoor work like pool or fence installation, landscaping for beautification and other home improvement jobs that require just a couple of workers remain shut down throughout the entire state,” she said.
“To not allow them to go back to work is a decision that lacks consistency. The Speaker of the Assembly should call us back immediately to end Gov. Cuomo’s expanded emergency powers and restore the traditional authorities given to the Legislature so we have a say in the future of our state.”
