Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday said a fifth region of New York state qualified to partially return to business Friday.

Central New York has met the criteria, and will begin phase one of the "New York Forward" re-opening, but it will likely take much longer before New York City meets all of the qualifications for the "pause" on nonessential businesses and services to start being lifted.

Cuomo said five regions of the state can on Friday begin the first phase of reopening, which is bringing back construction and manufacturing jobs, as well as curbside pickup for some retail businesses.

Those regions include:

  • The Finger Lakes
  • The state's Southern Tier along the Pennsylvania border
  • The Mohawk Valley
  • The North Country
  • Central New York, which includes the city of Syracuse, where Cuomo was Thursday for his daily briefing.

“Right now, by the criteria that we have, which is basically from the federal CDC, we have certain regions that are poised to reopen tomorrow, other regions where the numbers do not suggest they're in a position to reopen," said the govenor. "This is all based on the metrics and the numbers.”

Those metrics and numbers include:

  • A steady decline of hospitalizations over a period of 14 days
  • Fewer than five deaths per day
  • A minimum 30 percent vacancy rate for beds at area hospitals

“The big responsibility is now going to fall to local government to manage this situation," Cuomo said. "My advice to local governments are in terms of priority: daily monitoring of numbers, daily monitoring of numbers, and daily monitoring of numbers are the first three priorities."

Cuomo also said he spoke with President Donald Trump on Thursday morning about the next stimulus bill from Congress. He also asked him to release $3.9 billion for the MTA, passed as part of the first stimulus bill.

“I've also asked him to expedite certain payments, and he's expediting a $3.9 billion payment to the MTA, which is a very large transportation agency in the state, which desperately needs funding because the ridership is way down," the governor said. "The president cut red tape and actually sent the first installment today, so I'm grateful for that and I thank him.”

A source close to Sen. Charles Schumer said the $3.9 billion was actually released May 8 and Trump has “never supported it.”

On the state numbers, Cuomo said all the major indicators continue to trend downward, even though it’s been an imperfect trajectory.

The state said there were 420 new hospitalizations in the last 24 hours from COVID-19, a slight uptick from the day before, along with 157 confirmed deaths.

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