Phase One underway

Hudson Valley begins reopening process

By Lina Wu
Posted 5/27/20

The Mid-Hudson Region is ready for phase one of its reopening, announced Gov. Andrew Cuomo last Saturday. The region reopened on Tuesday.

Cuomo said he had spoken to the region’s …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Phase One underway

Hudson Valley begins reopening process

Posted

The Mid-Hudson Region is ready for phase one of its reopening, announced Gov. Andrew Cuomo last Saturday. The region reopened on Tuesday.

Cuomo said he had spoken to the region’s county-leaders about the continued training of contact-tracers through Memorial Day weekend last Saturday morning, so phase one could commence directly after Memorial Day.

There are four phases of the reopening process. Phase one allows construction, manufacturing, wholesale supply chain businesses to reopen, as well as many retailers for curbside pickup, in-store pickup, or drop off. Phase one retail categories include clothing and shoes, electronics and appliances, web and mail-order, florists, jewelry, luggage, and sporting goods.

Agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting businesses can also resume, as can landscaping and gardening businesses, drive-in movie theaters, and low-risk recreational activities.

Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus said that he got many phone calls from various restaurant owners about the exact details of phase two. He said that the pause between each phase could be two weeks or longer. The pause is needed for officials to evaluate the success of each phase.

“Numbers [coronavirus cases] continue to go down,” said Neuhaus. “That could make the timeline go quicker. It could make it a little bit longer, if the numbers start going up.”

This past Saturday, Neuhaus gave another one of his many novel coronavirus [COVID-19] video briefings. He said that as of Saturday, there are a total of 10,347 people who have tested positive for COVID-19. The number went up by 44 people from last Friday. On Saturday, a total of 431 people passed away from COVID-19, that number went up by 2 people from last Friday.

A total of 1,210 people recovered from COVID-19 and were discharged from hospitals as of last Saturday, that number went up by 13 people from last Friday. 71 percent of ICU beds are available as of last Saturday, that number went up by 1 percent from last Friday.

There were 102 hospitalizations as of last Saturday, this number is down by 5 people from last Friday. Of the hospitalizations, 72 people have tested positive for COVID-19, and 28 are people under investigation.

“Those numbers don’t just go straight down,” said Neuhaus. “They go up and down.”

According to the county’s case map, on Monday, the City of Newburgh still had the most COVID-19 cases at 1,397 people.
“We are still in a health care crisis,” said City of Newburgh Mayor Torrance Harvey in a livestream on May 13. Harvey said the specific data breakdown for the city isn’t available, because of privacy matters for individuals.

“We are still in a self-quarantine, we need people to be vigilant,” said Harvey on May 15 in a livestream. “The numbers are starting to come down, we want to continue that trajectory.”

The Town of New Windsor has the fourth highest number of cases at 826 people. The Town of Newburgh has the sixth highest number of cases at 687 people.

The City of Newburgh actively struggles with social distancing. Recently the city took on joint policing efforts with the New York State Police, Orange County Sheriff’s Office, Orange County District Attorney, and the Hudson Valley Safe Streets Task Force to reduce gun violence and large crowd gatherings.

“STAY HOME!! WE ARE STILL IN A SELF QUARANTINE!!! WE HAVE THE HIGHEST TEST POSITIVE RATE OF COVID-19 IN ORANGE COUNTY!! WE CAN DO BETTER NEWBURGH,” posted Harvey on Facebook on May 17.