Hudson Region Hits Another Benchmark For Reopening After Pandemic

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — The Mid-Hudson region moved closer Tuesday to reopening now that the coronavirus outbreak is subsiding. New York state requires regions to have a new hospitalization rate under 2 per 100,000 residents to begin phase one of the reopening plan. The Mid-Hudson posted a rate of 1.74 per 100,000 as of May 18, the state dashboard reported Tuesday afternoon.

Every region must hit seven benchmarks. With the Capital District opening Wednesday, only the Mid-Hudson, Long Island and New York City remain shut down.

Now that the Mid-Hudson has met five of the state's seven benchmarks, two are still to go:

• Metric No. 2—Decline in Deaths. Region must show a sustained decline in the three-day rolling average of daily hospital deaths over the course of a 14-day period. Alternatively, regions can satisfy this metric if the three-day rolling average of daily new hospital deaths does not exceed 5. The first number in this cell represents the number of consecutive days of decline in the three-day rolling average of daily hospital deaths; if this number is 14 or greater the region automatically satisfies this metric. The second number represents maximum daily increase in the three-day rolling average of new hospital deaths; if this number is 5 or less the region automatically satisfies this metric. The Mid-Hudson's score is 4/8.
• Metric No. 7—Contact Tracing Capacity. Number of contact tracers in each region must meet thresholds set by the Department of Health, in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health and Vital Strategies. The Mid-Hudson is expected to meet this metric.

Here's a look at the hospitalizations for the seven-county region in the past month.

Westchester County Executive George Latimer said Tuesday that Westchester, which makes up 42 percent of the region population-wise, is "as close to opening as we're going to be."

Phase 1 of reopening includes construction; manufacturing and wholesale supply chain; retail for curbside pickup and drop-off or in-store pickup; and agriculture, forestry and fishing.