Long Island not meeting targets for May 15 reopening; timing to vary 'by region'

Long Island is not ready to reopen its economy as the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc, and is behind even New York City in meeting key criteria, according to a list of state goalposts issued Monday by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

New York will start reopening its economy on a regional basis as the "NY Pause" order expires on May 15, but downstate areas including Long Island will likely do so far later than upstate, Cuomo said as he released new details of the plan.

The reopening is “not going to happen statewide. This state has different regions, which are in much different situations than other regions in the state,” he said. “Rather than wait for the whole state to be ready, reopen on a regional basis.”

He added: “If upstate has to wait for downstate to be ready, they’re going to be waiting a long time.”

Later in his daily briefing in upstate Rochester, Cuomo showed a map of high- and low-risk parts of the state in considering the potential spread of COVID-19. Long Island, New York City, the mid-Hudson, Capital District and Western New York were listed as "higher-risk regions" that will face a steeper curve to meet the requirements for a reopening of their businesses and institutions.

Other upstate areas appeared headed toward a phased restart of their local economies.

New York City had met one objective that has eluded the Long Island region in the governor's report: Recording a 14-day decline in hospital deaths or fewer than five deaths over a three-day average.

Still, Nassau County Executive Laura Curran said Monday she hopes Long Island will restart before New York City. She said Nassau and Suffolk counties would like to reopen at the same time and have been coordinating with Westchester County, a similar suburban area.

Citing population density, considered a risk factor in the virus' spread, Curran said, “I believe our timeline is going to be different from New York City’s,” which she described as "much more dense."

She reiterated her call for business leaders to begin thinking about how they would reopen safely.

Cuomo showed a slide listing different areas of the state and how far along they were in meeting criteria to reopen. Long Island had a green color or "yes" in two categories, and a red or "no" in four categories.

It has met guidelines in the areas of 14-day decline in hospitalization of COVID-19 patients and capability to test 30 individuals per 1,000 residents every month.

The Island had not met the criteria of keeping new hospitalizations under two for every 100,000 residents, and building capacity to keep 30% of hospital and intensive care unit beds available in case of a resurgence of coronavirus infections.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said Monday that hospitalizations increased, albeit slightly, in the county for the first time since an uptick on April 20. That raised questions about whether Suffolk is still on the trajectory of hitting the reopening marker of 14 days of hospitalization declines.

“The question was, does this set us back on meeting that metric? Does the 14-day clock reset now?” Bellone said.

Since the governor said the decline is based on a three-day rolling average, Suffolk could potentially pull it off if it sees a sharp decline in patients Tuesday, Bellone said.

“My expectation is, based on the last couple of weeks, we will see the numbers decline once again,” he said.

Bellone had said he expected Suffolk to reach that 14-day marker by this week.

In planning a reopening and to avoid the “virus spreading like wildfire again," he said, the county must make sure the transmission rate, measured at around 0.75, does not grow back to 1.1 per person with the virus, the level the county reached at the height of the crisis. That rate of transmission is considered the threshold for an outbreak.

Descent from peak

The effort to bring the economy back will unfold in phases that examine the impact of actions before proceeding, Cuomo said.

He laid out the multilayered process for New York businesses and institutions to start reopening, with local governments expected to watch specific health measures and to monitor results to guide their actions.

His presentation showed a list of businesses and activities that would be reopened over four phases. Education was listed in the final phase.

The governor outlined 10 criteria that regions will need to meet to start the first phase of reopening — including metrics for hospitalizations over time; number of new COVID-19 cases reported; new hospital admissions on a daily basis; a minimum level of hospital and ICU capacity and 90 days worth of stockpiled protective equipment for health care workers.

Other requirements will include jurisdictions ramping up coronavirus testing to 30 per 1,000 residents and establishing a baseline of 30 contact tracers per 100,000 residents to ensure the transmission rate is kept below 1 per person infected. 

“This is going to be region by region,” Cuomo said. Each region, he added, will need to “monitor this system on a daily basis … based on the data, based on the facts, and that will be a little different for every region in the state.”

The governor said that many indicators, such as total number of hospitalizations, are moving in the right direction, though not dropping as quickly as he and health officials had hoped.

“You see that mountain that we went up," he said of the rising number of hospitalizations at the height of the crisis. "Now we are on the other side of the mountain. Unfortunately, the decline from the mountain is not as steep as the incline.”

The statewide toll of deaths from coronavirus was 226 on Sunday, the fourth day in a row the figure was below 300, and substantially below the peak of nearly 800 a day in early April. Nassau added 22 new deaths, for a total of 1,792 by Sunday, according to state figures. Suffolk added 17 new deaths, for a total of 1,273.

The tally of new daily hospitalizations statewide, 717, represented the second day in a row that the figure was below 800, and tracking well below the height of occupied beds at more than 3,000 a day last month.

Northwell Health on Monday said the number of COVID-19 patients at its 19 hospitals fell to 1,485, a 26% drop from the same period a week ago. It's down 56% from the peak of 3,360 COVID-19 patients on April 8.

“The trend is promising and hopefully it holds,” said Terry Lynam, a Northwell spokesman.

Northwell has reported a drop in COVID-19 patients in 24 of the last 25 days. The only increase came April 20, when the number of coronavirus patients rose by 10.

Back to business, in phases

Phase One of Cuomo's reopening plan would include bringing back construction, manufacturing and the wholesale supply chain, and select retail with curbside pickup.

Phase Two would include professional services, finance and insurance, retail, administrative support and real estate/rental leasing.

Phase Three would be restaurants and food services as well as hotels and accommodations.

Phase Four would include arts, entertainment and recreation in one category, and education.

Cuomo said he wants to avoid restarting and then having to stop because the virus surges again. He pointed to some countries in Asia and other regions that had to do so.

“That’s what you learn from the other countries. You reopen too fast, then you have to stop. And nobody wants to have gone through all of this, and then start, just to stop again.”

Coronavirus indicators also continued to improve in Nassau, Curran said Monday.

The county had 1,029 COVID-related hospitalizations, a 58% decrease from Nassau’s peak two weeks ago when it had 2,477. It was the 19th straight day that hospitalizations were down, she said.

She said 12% of people tested for the coronavirus in the county returned positive, signaling a slowing of virus activity.

“That is the lowest number yet on the number of people testing positive. The lower that number gets, the better the news is,” Curran said. “So this is a milestone for us.”

While the number of deaths from illnesses related to COVID-19 grows more slowly, she said, it’s “a stark and chilling reminder that we are still in pandemic mode.”

Nassau added 185 confirmed cases of coronavirus, according to state figures released Monday, for a total of 36,965. Suffolk added 222 new cases, for a total of 35,077. New York City added 1,320 new cases, for a total of 175,651.

Cuomo called on local governments to enforce the social distancing directive, and to apply fines if people refuse.

“I think local governments should enforce it and I think there should be a penalty. Because you could literally kill someone … because you didn’t want to wear a mask,” he said. “How cruel and irresponsible would that be?”

He noted that health care workers are putting their lives on the line, and some are dying, as they treat coronavirus patients. Cuomo said people should take precautions so that medical personnel don’t face more burdens with more patients.

“The least gratitude you can show is at least wear the mask so you don’t infect more people,” he said.

Education gap grows 'wider'

Extended school closings and shifts to online instruction have raised growing concerns in Albany that students without access to Wi-Fi connections and other technology could be missing out on lessons.

“This is a humongous issue,” Shannon Tahoe, the state’s interim education commissioner, said at the Board of Regents meeting Monday.

Roger Tilles of Manhasset, who represents Long Island on the Regents board, said he has received mixed reports of some school districts in the region with limited funding that had succeeded with remote instruction, along with other districts that fell short.

“Every day that goes on, that gap is getting wider and wider,” Tilles said, referring to effects of school closures triggered by the pandemic.

Food need growing, advocates say

Advocates said Monday that a Suffolk County 311 hotline does not consistently connect homebound, disabled or immunocompromised residents with food aid organizations that can meet their needs.

A petition calling for a better hotline has received almost 3,000 signatures, they said.

"This hotline is of essence and is important for homebound people," said Allilsa Fernandez, founder of Mental Health Pandemic, a Facebook group. "It is not a want. It is a need."

Monique Fitzgerald, of Positively United for Change-Bellport, said lines for emergency food distribution can require hours of in-person waiting — often an impossible task for the disabled and the elderly.

"Why do people need to stand in long lines just to get food?" she asked. "It's inhumane at this point."

Minerva Perez of Organización Latino-Americana of Eastern Long Island said some of the 54 families her group is working with have enough food only for the next two days.

Bellone defended the 311 call center.

"There is no one who has called 311 that we have not been able to assist and we will make sure that remains the case moving forward," he said.

Subway closing for cleaning

Beginning Wednesday, all 472 New York City Transit subway stations will be closed between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. so that cleaning crews can disinfect the fleet of MTA subway trains every day.

Subway chief Sarah Feinberg noted that, in addition to using their usual cleaning products, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will test “innovative solutions for this cleaning program,” including ultraviolet light, antimicrobials and electrostatic disinfectants.

To serve the nearly 11,000 overnight subway riders that will be displaced by the closures, MTA chairman Patrick Foye said, the agency is adding 1,100 bus trips to its schedule and bolstering its bus fleet by 150%. For essential workers without easy access to bus routes, the MTA is creating a “connector service” of cabs and for-hire vehicles that will be available to riders free of charge.

Foye said the overnight closures — among “only a handful of instances” over the subway’s 116-year history that it has not run 24 hours a day — will be around as long as the COVID-19 pandemic is.

Long Island Rail Road trains, too, will undergo daily disinfecting under the enhanced cleaning plan, although the effort will not impact railroad service, officials said. However, the LIRR’s scant remaining riders are affected by new cleaning protocols at Penn Station.