Rockland Hits 4 Essential Goals For Re-opening The Economy

ROCKLAND COUNTY, NY — Rockland County is helping the Mid-Hudson region aim at re-opening the economy soon. There are seven counties in the Mid-Hudson region, which as a whole has met five of the seven criteria set by the state under guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control.

The county itself has met four of the seven. Rockland has contributed to the region's decline in hospitalizations, deaths, ICU beds and diagnostic testing.

The county and the region are struggling to get the rate of new hospitalizations under 2 per 100,000 residents.

The region as a whole is doing better than Rockland at keeping 30 percent of total hospital beds empty and at organizing an army of contact tracers.

The seven criteria:

1. Hospitalization decline – 14-day decline based on 3-day average. Rockland has met. Mid-Hudson has met.
2. Decline in hospital deaths – 14-day decline based on 3-day average. Rockland has met. Mid-Hudson has not met.
3. New hospitalizations - under 2 people per 100,000 residents based on 3-day average. Rockland has not met. Mid-Hudson has not met.
4. Total beds available - have at least 30% total hospital beds available. Rockland has not met. Mid-Hudson has met.
5. ICU beds - 30% threshold of open beds. Rockland has met. Mid-Hudson has met.
6. Diagnostic Testing capacity - conduct 30 diagnostic tests for every 1,000 residents per month. Rockland has met. Mid-Hudson has met.
7. Tracing – have at least 30 contact tracers per 100k residents. Rockland has not met. Mid-Hudson is expected to meet.

As of May 10, Rockland County has tested 33,514 people, and 33.3 percent of them have tested positive for the new coronavirus — the highest rate in the Mid-Hudson region, according to state health data.

There are 141 people hospitalized in the county with confirmed or suspected cases.

As of May 9, 576 Rockland residents have died from COVID-19 — the second highest total of fatalities in the region.

Rockland County Executive Ed Day said:

The Governor's phased reopening plan is a moderate approach to restarting the New York State economy. We have already begun working on a Rockland County specific approach and what we aim to accomplish locally. We will continue to work closely with our partners at the Town and Village level and have been collecting data on their concerns over the last week.

The regional approach is one that makes sense and provides us with an opportunity to tailor any plan to fit the needs of our residents. We are doing everything humanly possible to meet the Governor's criteria and reopen Rockland as quickly and safely as possible.

The Mid-Hudson Region, of which Rockland is a part, currently meets five of the seven criteria for reopening. We will be communicating daily with our regional partners and New York State as we strive to meet these metrics and will share that information with the public and local businesses so we can all be on the same page.

When it comes to concerns about a possible resurgence of cases of COVID-19, our Department of Planning has the ability to drill down into case data to determine neighborhood by neighborhood where any new cases pop up so that we can take immediate action if this disease looks to be spreading again. We will be prepared for a real-time response to any increases in positive test results or hospitalization intakes.

This is our chance to get the local economy back up and running in the safest, most effective manner possible. We should look at the data, respect the data but not get mired in the data. We understand that our residents are concerned about opening too soon, not opening at all, and the safety of their friends, family and neighbors above all. These concerns are warranted and there is no one size fits all answer. But know that we will take these steps judiciously and with clear purpose as we begin to restart Rockland.