Gov. Cuomo Friday: We’ll be Talking about Construction, Manufacturing, Reopening in Upstate

ALBANY — During his Friday afternoon press conference, Gov. Andrew Cuomo specified that COVID-19 infection rates have fallen much more “dramatically” in regions of upstate New York than they have downstate, but stopped short of officially announcing portions of the state will reopen after May 15, when the governor’s “NY on PAUSE” order expires.    

“We have the beast on the run. We haven’t killed the beast – but we’re ahead of it. The hospitalization rate is coming down, the death rate is coming down, so that’s all good news and I feel that – for the first time in this engagement – we are actually ahead of the virus,” Cuomo said.

“We have the virus on the run because we have been smart, because we have been disciplined,” he said.

“If you look at these numbers now, and factor them forward, the numbers in upstate New York have been dramatically different than downstate… and we’ll be talking about construction, manufacturing, reopening in upstate,” Cuomo said. “We get to May 15, I’ll lay out the numbers – here are the numbers, and here is what the numbers say.” 

Cuomo added: “Downstate, I don’t think those numbers are going to change dramatically enough to make a difference in the next few days.”