New York governor says 'worst is over', joins forces with northeastern states to reopen economy

New York's governor on Monday declared that the "worst is over" for the state hit hardest by the novel coronavirus, as six northeastern states began working together on a plan for reopening the region's economy ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic.

New York Governor Andrew 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 announced on Monday the creation of a multi-state council.

The coordinating group will comprise one health expert, an economic development expert and the respective Chief of Staff from each state and will work together to develop a fully integrated regional framework to gradually lift the states' stay at home orders while minimising the risk of increased spread of the virus.

The six states together have over 300,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, more than half of the US total, and nearly 14,000 deaths, around 60 per cent of the country's total. The US now has 577,307 cases and more than 23,000 people have died in the country because of COVID19.

During a joint address with his counterparts from the neighbouring states, Cuomo said New York has reached a plateau in the increase in number of cases.

Earlier, Cuomo had announced for the first time that the worst of the coronavirus crisis is over and the state could look at going back to normalcy but cautioned that New Yorkers would still have to be very vigilant and cannot get reckless with social distancing measures.

“I believe the worst is over. If we continue to be smart going forward, but yes I think you can say that the worst is over,” Cuomo said during his daily coronavirus briefing.

“I was not sure that we could keep the tide from overwhelming our hospital capacity. And they (hospital workers) did. Feel good about that. I believe that the worst is over if we continue to be smart. I believe we can now start on the path to normalcy and we can have a plan where you start to see some businesses reopening,” he said.

In his briefing with the Governors, Cuomo said states should start looking forward to “reopening” with a smart plan “because if you do it wrong it can backfire and we have seen that in other places around the globe.”

Cuomo said none of the states have ever experienced anything like the virus before and reopening the economy would require coordination with the other states in the area.

He said it has to be done as a “cooperative effort where we learn from each other and we share information and we share resources and we share intelligence. No one has done this before.”

New York State, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the US, has been the hardest hit and has 195,031 cases. An additional 671 New York residents died on Easter Sunday, bringing the state's death toll to 10,056.

Cuomo said the 671 deaths on April 12 “is not as bad as it has been in the past few days” and when on an average more than 750 people died daily. The death toll, the lowest daily total since April 5, now is "basically flat and basically flat at a horrific level of pain, grief and sorrow.”

Addressing the briefing, Murphy said the cases in New Jersey have not yet plateaued and the state is a “couple of beats behind New York. Our positive tests have begun to flatten, but we're not yet there.” He said reopening the economy in coordination “seems to be an overwhelmingly prudent approach.”

“This is the fight of our lives, let there be no doubt about it. We are not out of the woods yet, and reopening ourselves back up will be equally challenging beyond a shadow of a doubt,” he said.

Lamont said as states work to re-open the economy, schools and other businesses, it is crucial to listen to the experts and “make sure you do not pull the trigger to early.” He referred to Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore that are “unfortunately” seeing a small resurgence and a second wave of the virus.

“That would be so demoralising for our economy. So that is why what we do, I want to do on a coordinated basis, have a data base that we share, establish the same protocols, so we know how we are working together to get the information down to Washington so they can coordinate as well.”

Wolf said that as states figure out to “reopen our schools, how we reopen our businesses and our homes, we are also going to recognise that we are trying to figure out how we are going to restore the sense of hope that this pandemic has taken away from so many of us.”

Carney said that the Northeastern states are connected “in a real way in terms of transportation and visitation and the rest. So our working together, sharing our information and intelligence I think will help each of us make better decisions.”

Raimondo said, like the other governors, he too does not want to keep people out of work one day longer than necessary but cautioned that it has to be done safely, “which means we need a smart, targeted approach to slowly reopen the economy in a way that keeps everybody - most especially the elderly, the vulnerable, and those with preexisting conditions - safe.” 

(Image Credit: AP)