Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday he plans to make adjustments to coronavirus cluster zones later this week as some areas show cases leveling off.
"The Queens numbers are better than the Brooklyn numbers,” Cuomo said. "Orange and Rockland numbers are still high. We have total flexibility in these zones."
“As discreet areas get better, you can rewrite the size of the zones, and that's what we're looking to do now,” he added. “And if we know certain activities are going to be curtailed, which we believe have been significant generators, then we can do even more."
Mayor de Blasio in his briefing with reporters said the next week or two will be crucial to preventing a second wave.
"If you’re talking about central Queens, we’ve seen notable progress there,” de Blasio said. "We’re going to be talking with the state about how we analyze that. We’ll obviously want to see a couple more days of data before any final decisions. It’s a little early to project or predict but still it is possible that we could see some action later on this week based on our conversations with the state.”
The mayor suggested there could be another two weeks of work left in the other trouble spots before restrictions could be lifted.
The state earlier this month shut down nonessential businesses and schools, and limited attendance at houses of worship in parts of the state seeing a rise in cases.
According to the most recent data from the state, Queens red zones saw a positivity rate of 2.58 percent between October 11 and October 17, down from 3.71 percent during the period of October 4 through October 10. In Brooklyn red zones, the positivity rate was 5.29 percent from October 11 through October 17, down from 5.86 percent from October 4 through October 10.