Cuomo COVID Briefing: Horse, Race Tracks To Reopen Statewide

LONG ISLAND, NY — Suffolk County is now eligible for elective surgeries and ambulatory care, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced in his daily coronavirus briefing on Saturday. In addition, the governor announced that all horse and race tracks in the state, including Belmont Park on Long Island can reopen June 1. However, these events will have to be watched virtually as fans will not be allowed to attend.

Statewide hospitalization numbers continue to decrease, but Cuomo called it a "slow decline." The net change in hospitalizations and intubations also went down, as well as the total number of new cases per day, which is at 400 as of Saturday. The number of deaths due to coronavirus, which Cuomo stated continues to remain "stubborn," increased slightly at 157, up from 132 on Friday.

Despite the fact that half the state reopened on Friday, Long Island has still not met all the region-by-region criteria put in place. Long Island has met five out of the seven criteria as of Saturday. As governor Cuomo said officials are working to move forward with reopening certain areas, they are considering reopening economic activity without crowds/gatherings, such as the horse and racing tracks. Cuomo says they are also considering opening sports such as baseball without fans in order to not cause a "spike" in coronavirus numbers.

In announcing the reopening plan, Cuomo also stated that Suffolk County now open for eligible for elective surgeries and ambulatory care. He reassured residents that hospitals are safe and residents should "get a medical procedure if they need it."

Cuomo also went on to state that officials are looking at date to figure out where the coronavirus cases are coming from. He stated that while his original theory that they were being passed among essential workers, he claimed that the studies show that the infection rate is continuing to come from people at home. He claims that they found the rate of infection among essential workers is actually lower than the general population.

Cuomo also called on the U.S. Senate to pass the coronavirus relief bill that was passed by the House last night. The bill includes $500 billion for states and $375 billion for locals; Medicaid funding for the most vulnerable; increased SNAP food assistance; 100 percent FEMA federal assistance; funding for testing; and repeals SALT to help states most affected by COVID-19.

"The numbers have been steadily decreasing and we're now right about where we were when we started, but we want to make sure we don't go back to the hell that we've gone through," he said. "We have a smart phased reopening plan that has been reviewed by experts, and half of the state is in the process of reopening. Now we're getting a little more nuanced in our analysis and starting to look for economic activities that we can start without crowds and gatherings - in this state we can do that with horse racing tracks and car racing at Watkins Glen and we're going to do that starting June 1st."