Schools Can Reopen In Brooklyn 'Orange Zone,' Cuomo Says

BROOKLYN, NY — Schools and high-risk businesses that were on coronavirus lockdown in Brooklyn's "orange zone" can now reopen, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday.

The South Brooklyn "orange zone" — a buffer area around the more stringent "red zone" that stretches over Borough Park, Midwood and Gravesend — will be downgraded to a "yellow zone" after fewer than 2 percent of coronavirus tests came back positive over a 10-day period, Cuomo said.

Under the "yellow zone" designation, schools can open with mandatory weekly testing of students and teachers, restaurants may offer indoor and outdoor dining with a maximum of four people per table, non-essential businesses can reopen and gatherings of up to 25 people can resume.

The loosening of restrictions won't apply to Brooklyn's "red zone," which has not yet stayed under the 3 percent positivity rate threshold for 10 days.

The existing "yellow zone" in Brooklyn will also go unchanged.

The announcement comes two weeks after the state first put color-coded sections of Brooklyn and Queens, as well as Rockland and Orange counties, into different levels of lockdown following coronavirus surges in certain neighborhoods.

Cuomo said Wednesday that the positivity rate has improved in all areas of the lockdown.

In Brooklyn, the seven-day average for the red zone decreased from 7.7 percent in the last week of September to 5.5 percent in the last seven days.

Wednesday's announcement also loosened restrictions in a lockdown zone in Central Queens.

Read a full rundown of the restrictions for each color-coded zone here.