Stay-At-Home Order Extended As NYC Struggles To Meet Metrics

UPDATE: The Governor announced Friday that the first phase of the reopening of NYC can start on June 8. Anybody not involved in construction, manufacturing or retail is ordered to continue to stay at home.

NEW YORK CITY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo reissued the stay-at-home "New York on PAUSE" order for regions such as New York City that have not yet met his reopening benchmarks, state records show.

While the order extends the "PAUSE" until June 27, it allows New York City to reopen earlier if it meets New York State's coronavirus benchmarks, which Mayor Bill de Blasio estimates will occur within the first two weeks of June.

"As soon as a region meets the prescribed public health and safety metrics, as determined by the Department of Health" the order reads, "They will be eligible for Phase One reopening."

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New York City has met four out of seven state-set benchmarks but still needs to make available more hospital and ICU beds, and prepare a team of contact tracers, according to the regional monitoring dashboard.

The city still needs needs to increase the share of available hospital beds available from 26 to 30 percent, increase the available ICU beds from 29 percent to 30 percent, and launch 30 hospital tracers for every 100,000 residents.

The order does not set a date for New York City's reopening and de Blasio has declined to specify further than it will occur within the first two weeks of June.

New York City also has its own set of reopening metrics which de Blasio said Friday are showing signs of progress.

The number of Intensive Care Unit patients dropped to 391, nearing the necessary 375 threshold, and both suspected COVID-19 hospitalizations and percentage of positive cases both stood well below the necessary thresholds at 61 hospitalizations and 5 percent testing positive, de Blasio said.

Those allowed to return to work during phase one include manufacturers, construction workers and retailers prepared to do curbside or quick in-store pick ups, according to de Blasio and Cuomo.

What remains unclear is how those newly released employees will safely commute to work.

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