Governor Cuomo announces which regions will reopen on May 15th

Cuomo said on Tuesday that the city was expected to meet its target of hiring 2,250 by May 15 despite the current shortfall.

Cuomo admitted that "nobody knows" how fast businesses can reopen and whether each phase of the planned re-openings will be sustainable.

Addressing the media on Monday, Cuomo said three regions in the northern part of the state - the Southern Tier, Mohawk Valley, and the Finger Lakes - will enter the first of four reopening phases, reports Xinhua news agency.

The five boroughs still need to reduce the total number of new hospitalizations, while freeing up more hospital beds, and beds in hospitals' intensive care units before reopening, according to information from the governor's office.

Only three regions now meet the criteria, including the Finger Lakes, the Southern Tier and the Mohawk Valley. "How those people get tested and how we get the results, we are waiting to hear all that as well.from the New York State Department of Health", she said Monday.

Congressional candidate and New York Republican Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis is calling for an independent federal investigation into Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo's controversial coronavirus nursing home order following the deaths of thousands.

Central New York and the North Country are both a little shy of the benchmark that a region test 30 of every 1,000 residents per month, based on a seven-day average of new tests per day.

In this first phase, construction, manufacturing, agriculture, forestry and fishing businesses can reopen, and retailers can start offering curbside or in-store pickups.

Once a given region meets the requirements, it would be allowed to begin the phased restart. "We want to do it smartly". Many states in the South have allowed non-essential businesses to open up again in accordance with regional and state laws. The governor deemed landscaping and gardening, drive-in movie theaters, and outdoor recreation like tennis as acceptable.

On Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has been even more cautious than Cuomo since the beginning of the pandemic and who called for a shutdown before it was implemented, said New York City would remain closed until June unless "something miraculous happened". "The only way we will defeat this virus is working together with the state to ensure all nursing homes and assisted living providers are afforded the necessary resources to accomplish this goal", said Stephen Hanse, president and CEO of the New York State Health Facilities Association and the New York State Center for Assisted Living.

"We just made it over the mountain. Nobody wants to go back to the other side of the mountain", the governor said.