Westchester Announces County Reopening Task Force

WHITE PLAINS, NY — Westchester County Executive George Latimer announced Monday the formation of the Westchester County Reopening Task Force — a group charged with working to find solutions to advance the interests of local businesses in a post-coronavirus economy. The task force will provide guidance to the county as it works through the four phases of reopening and help ensure that businesses in each phase have what they need to reopen safely and successfully.

“What we have here is a group of individuals who have served in a variety of capacities, to serve in this particular capacity, to help organize our efforts to reach out to the businesses of Westchester County and do everything we can to help them reopen as fast as possible and as successfully as possible,” Latimer said.

The task force is co-chaired by Westchester County Legislator Catherine Parker, a former small business owner and past president of the Rye Chamber of Commerce, and Louis Lanza, a restaurateur with businesses in Westchester County. Both bring deep expertise and broad connections which will enable the task force to maximize its impact.

Parker said she sees this reopening task force as a unified voice for all different sectors of business in Westchester County.

"This will be a way to get Westchester back to where we were — and even better than before,” she said.

Lanza said restaurants can be opened safely.

“Restaurants are working ahead of the curve in getting ready everything they will need to do to open," he said. "There are safe ways of running our businesses and once we get the go ahead, we can safely reopen and serve our customers.”

The task force will play a significant role in communicating to the business and nonprofit communities, their colleagues and the organizations that they lead about guidelines and best practices as the region enters each stage of phased reopening. The task force will also establish working groups that will focus on each critical area such as health care, labor, hospitality, general business, to name a few. These working groups will allow for all Westchester business owners to have an opportunity to give input.

The first meeting of the Reopening Task Force will take place this at 10 a.m. Thursday via Webex and it anticipates meeting virtually going forward.

Latimer said there were 33,552 confirmed positive tests for the new coronavirus to date. Two weeks ago, it was 32,323. There are 1,229 active cases as of Monday.

There have been 1,374 deaths, up three from the night before.

Latimer said for the last several days the number of fatalities has been in the single digits and to have those numbers drop down so dramatically bodes well for reopening.

So far 161,908 tests for the virus have been administered in the county. Discounting any duplication, which is probably minor, Latimer said that means 16.2 percent of the county's population has been tested.

Here is the map showing the number of active and confirmed cases by community.

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