Westchester’s region ‘can reopen on Tuesday’ following contact tracer training over weekend

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo spoke during his Saturday briefing.

The Mid-Hudson Valley, which includes Westchester County, is on track to meet all seven metrics required to begin phase one of reopening on Tuesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in his briefing Saturday.

“I spoke this morning to the representatives of the Mid-Hudson, the county executives, and I said, ‘Look, we have a choice. If we can get them trained over Memorial Day weekend, we can reopen on Tuesday,” according to a transcript of Cuomo’s briefing. “You can do these trainings online. Many of them are government employees, and we agreed and I thank the county executives and supervisors. We agreed to ask people to be trained Saturday, Sunday and Monday. And we’ll open in the Mid-Hudson on Tuesday.”

As of Friday, the Mid-Hudson region met the six medical criteria for reopening, according to the state’s Regional Monitoring Dashboard, which updated with that data on Saturday. The mandated contact tracing capacity was the last hurdle to start phase one.

The Mid-Hudson Valley would join the Capital Region, Western New York, Central New York, North Country, Finger Lakes, Southern Tier and Mohawk Valley Regions. Ulster, Dutchess, Sullivan, Orange, Putnam, Rockland and Westchester counties make up the region.

“In all these admonitions, all these pleas, the good news is remember it is working,” Cuomo said. “What we are doing is working. You look at the New York curve, you look at how low it is, you look at the number of deaths, look at the decline. Compare with the rest of the nation where you still see the rest of the nation’s curve going up.”

“The Mid-Hudson Valley has now identified enough contact tracers to meet the state’s guidelines, and the tracers are being trained in preparation for the Mid-Hudson Valley entering phase one,” a press statement from the governor’s office said.

After phase one reopening, there will be 14-day pause before the second phase for the state to monitor the impact on coronavirus infections. Phase one will allow the following businesses to begin activities:

  • Construction
  • Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting
  • Retail (limited to curbside or in-store pickup or drop off)
  • Manufacturing
  • Wholesale trade