'Too Early to Tell' if COVID-19 Zones Will Be Lifted, Cuomo Says

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday that it’s too early to tell whether the state’s new restrictions in areas experiencing spikes of the coronavirus will be lifted next week, 14 days after they were first implemented to tamp down the clusters.

The positivity rate in those zones, centered in Brooklyn, Queens, the Southern Tier, and the lower Hudson Valley, was still at an average of 4.84%, Cuomo said.

That’s down from recent days, when the positivity rate has been above 5% in those clusters, but still a far cry from the statewide positivity rate of 1.09%. The positivity rate outside the hotspot clusters is below 1%.

“It's too early to tell on the numbers, but I know from the conversations and the actions we're taking, they are having an effect,” Cuomo said.

The state implemented a new strategy for attacking a series of COVID-19 clusters on Oct. 6. That strategy divided the clusters into three zones, likened to a bullseye.

The innermost area of the zones, the so-called red zones, were hit with the harshest restrictions, with mass gatherings and houses of worship strictly limited. Schools were also closed in those areas, as were nonessential businesses.

The two zones outside the rec zones, the orange and yellow zones, had less severe restrictions, but still placed new limits on houses of worship, mass gatherings, and schools.

Those clusters popped up a few weeks ago in areas of Brooklyn, Queens, and Broome, Orange, and Rockland Counties. Cuomo has attributed the clusters to a lack of enforcement from local government officials on things like mass gatherings and social distancing.

He warned, on Wednesday, that the state could cut off funds from local governments that don’t enforce the state’s COVID-19 regulations. That cut would hit harder than normal, given the poor finances of both the state and local governments in New York.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio implied to reporters on Thursday that a decision could be made as early as Sunday as to whether the restrictions on clusters in New York City would be lifted next week.

“You do see a leveling off here,” de Blasio said.

But Cuomo pushed back on that claim, saying de Blasio didn’t have the authority to lift the restrictions, or to suggest that they could be lifted at any time. Cuomo’s made the same point at various times throughout the pandemic.

“So, we start playing this game, where local officials speak about something that they have no authority over,” Cuomo said. “And then confuse people.”

If the restrictions were to be lifted at the two-mark period, this coming Tuesday, Oct. 20, would be the final day.