All New York regions other than NYC will be in phase two of reopening next week

As of Wednesday, seven of New York’s 10 designated regions were in phase two of the state’s four-part reopening plan–Central New York, Finger Lakes, Mohawk Valley, North Country, Southern Tier, Western New York (the Buffalo area), and the Capital Region. And yesterday, Governor Cuomo announced that the Mid-Hudson Valley is on track to enter phase two on Tuesday, June 9th and Long Island on Wednesday, June 10th. With state guidelines and social distancing measures in place, this allows office-based workers, real estate services, in-store retail shopping, outdoor dining, and some barbershop services to resume.

Last Friday, the governor made the big announcement that New York City would enter phase one on June 8. Since early last week, the city has been the only region to not have begun the reopening process. As 6sqft reported, phase one allows construction, manufacturing, agriculture, forestry, fishing, and select retail that can offer curbside pickup to reopen.

The decision to advance the aforementioned regions to the next phase came after global experts reviewed data from phase one. This data is also now publicly available on a new Early Warning System Dashboard that tracks new infections and their severity, hospital capacity, and testing/tracing targets.

The specific sectors that can reopen in phase two include the following:

• Offices
  • Professional services
  • nonprofit
  • technology
  • administrative support
  • higher education administration (excluding full campus reopening)
• Real estate
  • residential property management entities
  • real estate salespeople/brokers
  • building inspectors
  • building appraisers
• Commercial Building Management
• In-store non-essential and essential retail businesses
• Outdoor dining
• Vehicle sales, leases, and rental activities
• Retail rental, repair, and cleaning activities
• Hair salons and barbershops

Phase two does NOT include nail salons, tattoo parlors, malls, dine-in and on-premise restaurant or bar service, gyms, casinos, movie theaters, amusement attractions such as zoos, bowling alleys, and theme parks, and any large gatherings.

On Monday, the governor said, “If you take a step back, what we have done with this virus is a really amazing accomplishment, and it was all done by the people of this state… Remember where we were. We had 800 people die in one day – we had the worst situation in the United States of America. At one point we had the worst situation on the globe, but we are now reopening in 50 days… But look at what we did in 93 days. We went from the worst situation on the globe to actually reopening.”

In his press conference on Tuesday, the governor shared the positive news that the number of new COVID hospitalizations in the state was 154, the lowest yet. The number of deaths remained below 60 for the third straight day. As of June 29, summer day camps can reopen in New York, while officials are still making a determination about sleepaway camps. Additionally, low-risk, outdoor recreational activities and businesses providing these activities can open in regions cleared for phase one.

RELATED:

• NYC is on track to start reopening week of June 8
• 9 of 10 New York regions have met reopening metrics, NYC still waiting
• New York businesses will reopen in four phases, here’s the breakdown

Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on June 2, 2020, and has been updated