BUFFALO, N.Y. — Congressman Tom Reed joined Republican lawmakers at the state level in a Lockport factory Tuesday afternoon to discuss what he felt were examples of progress towards reopening. He cited the example of bringing in more testing through a private lab program.
"Because we partnered with the hospitals and Quest Diagnostic labs we were able to go clearly well above that metric of testing and diagnostic capability and supply chain integrity in order to meet the metric to reopen," Reed said.
State Senator Robert Ortt has questioned a potential two week lag time for a phased-in reopening in Western New York. He fears some business openings could be put off until later in July.
"I hope there will be a mechanism to do that... if it's two days or three days later," Ortt said. "I have not been able to get clarification on if you're not ready to open on the 15th... when is the next sort of adjustment."
Reed also stressed that he feels we must do what we can to prevent a second shutdown if the numbers start surging again. But 2 On Your Side asked about the variabilities with this virus and the difficulty in predicting where it could go in the near future.
Reed responded, "Because of what we've learned of the virus from a public health perspective and also as we reopen and what we learned as we shut down comes into play here."
While giving some credit to the Cuomo administration for bringing the numbers down in the state, Representative Reed says we need to see much more of a focus on what we have seen in other countries like Sweden that controlled the pandemic more effectively. He also says greater improvements in the supply chain should help to prepare us if the numbers would start to surge again.