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Good article, good context for that 14.9% infected tweet

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/cuomo-outlines-reopening-roadmap-for-new-york-as-daily-deaths-hit-lowest-level-in-weeks/2390949/


Some key points:

New York will start to reopen parts of the state after May 15, while New Jersey will indefinitely extend its stay-at-home orders — signs of a nuanced start to a process that could take months and fundamentally reshape the way people live and work.

Cuomo has unveiled a broad, gradually phased reopening plan, one that could see parts of New York, like upstate, open as early as mid-May.

While parts of upstate New York may be able to reopen in phases after May 15, reopening the downstate area -- New York City, Westchester, Long Island and surrounding suburbs -- is a highly complicated endeavor, given the prevalence of COVID-19 in those areas, Cuomo said.

In the hardest-hit places, containment is still the highest priority. Cuomo noted Sunday the infection rate continues to slow. Last week, 10 New Yorkers were infecting about every nine New Yorkers. It has improved slightly -- to about eight infections for every 10 New Yorkers -- but it has to decline more to reopen safely, he says.

No major reopening will happen in New York until state and regional hospitalization rates see a decline for 14 straight days, in accordance with CDC guidelines, Cuomo said. Once that metric is met, reopening will be phased.



Murphy Unveils Roadmap for New Jersey

The first four principles of his six-principle approach are dedicated to securing public health. Principle 1 requires a sustained drop in the curve, meaning new positive results and hospitalization numbers will need to trend down. Murphy also wants to see hospitals to step down from functioning in crisis mode. No. 2 involves expanding testing capacity and dramatically expediting results. The third step entails robust contact tracing, while the fourth involves securing safe places to isolate for future COVID-19 patients. 

Once those objectives have been accomplished, Murphy says the state can move to principle 5 -- a responsible economic reboot. After that, the goal is to ensure resiliency. He plans to have a similar reopening plan to New York in terms of balancing an industry's risk with its essentiality.

The first steps to New Jersey's reopening are likely still a few weeks away, he said -- but he wants his state's residents to feel confident the time will come.



Mayor de Blasio on New York City

In New York City, the epicenter of the national crisis, Mayor Bill de Blasio said reopening would be determined by his key three daily health indicators: number of hospitalizations, number of ICU admissions and percentage of people testing positive. He wants to see all three indicators trend down for at least 10 to 14 days.

Since he's been publicly charting New York City's progress in his daily media briefings, the city has only seen two days where all three metrics declined. Those two days came more than a week apart.

De Blasio announced alternate side parking would remain suspended in the city for another two weeks, at least until May 12. To help give New Yorkers more open space, he said he had reached a deal with the city council to open up 40 miles of city streets to pedestrian traffic over the next month, starting with the hardest-hit communities. Up to 100 miles of streets could be made available through sidewalk expansions and conversions into pedestrian plazas.

Ultimately, the mayor says he wants a roadmap by June 1 on how to rebuild New York City; he has said that won't include the reopening of public schools.

While the mayor had warned New Yorkers to have "low expectations" for summer with respect to beaches, public gatherings and other major events, Cuomo said Sunday there must be summer activities in New York City. He says people can't be locked up in their homes in a densely populated urban area like this one through August.



Antibody tests suggest 2.7 million New Yorkers have been infected

Antibodies don't guarantee immunity from reinfection, but the nation's top experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, say it's reasonable to assume someone who has had the virus won't get it again. At least not in the immediate future.

A new Siena College poll released Monday brings home the grim reality of the pandemic - about one in three New Yorkers say they know someone who has died from the coronavirus. New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have lost more than 25,000 people to date. 



And after?

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House Coronavirus Task Force response coordinator, says social distancing will be needed through summer to ensure public safety. Harvard researchers say such the practice could be necessary into 2022 barring a vaccine for the coronavirus, which could be 18 months out, or an effective treatment for it.

Thus far, clinical trials for experimental drugs have not spurred optimism. Hydroxychloroquine had been touted by the president; after further study, the FDA now advises against using that drug outside of medical settings. A draft document showing inconclusive results for another drug, Gilead's remdesivir, showed disappointing results. Gilead says the findings were inconclusive.