NEW YORK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th April, 2020) The governors of the US states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Rhode Island will coordinate their economic reopening plans after the shutdown caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a press briefing on Monday.
Earlier in the day, Cuomo along with New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, Delaware Governor John Carney and Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo discussed reopening plans.
"Each state is going to name a public health official for that state, an economic development official for that state. Those officials and the chief of staff of the governor of each state will then form a working group that will start work immediately on designing a reopening plan, taking into consideration public health concerns and issues and the economic reactivation issues and concerns," Cuomo said.
The governor said he did not expect the six states to implement the same reopening scenarios because of the different facts and situations with COVID-19 across them. The future reopening will vary state by state but will be aligned by a common strategy.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said that the states have formed a regional advisory council to help with restoring the economy as soon as the COVID-19 health emergency is passed.
On March 20, New York state, along with the other states, implemented the so-called PAUSE, which ordered 100 percent of the non-essential workforce to stay home, prohibited non-essential gatherings, closed restaurants, bars and gyms, enforced strict social distancing of at least six feet and introduced fines for those not complying with these policies. On March 22, a statewide stay-at-home order went into effect at 8 p.m. in New York.
In his daily update on the COVID-19 situation in New York, Cuomo rejected the idea that one day the situation will improve and all the restrictions will be lifted. Instead, he said, there will be milestones which, when reached, would allow for some easing of social-distancing.
Cuomo also said that the return to normalcy following the pandemic would not happen until a vaccine against the virus is developed in another 12 to 18 months.
