Western New York, which includes Erie, Niagara, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany counties, is not one of the regions entering into Phase 1 on Friday.
That's because only five out of the seven benchmarks set by the state have been met, which is actually an improvement from Thursday.
The two we're still waiting on are how many people are in the hospital with COVID-19 right now, and how many people are dying daily from the virus.
"We've done a lot of research, as you know, those new cases mostly coming from people who are at home," New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo said Friday at his daily briefing.
"So, we're talking about home spread more than at work, more than first responders, more than essential personnel, and that's the hardest place to control the spread is when a person's literally at home, right? There are very few precautions. It's all about personal behavior. That's where those cases are coming from."
So, while other regions in the state begin Phase 1, Western New York can't reopen because we don't meet the requirements.
Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul addressed the reasons Western New York can't reopen Thursday night.
"There are seven measures that we are asked to look at by the Federal Center for Disease Control that determine whether or not we have this virus, this deadly virus, under control. The first three of those relate to the rate of transmission, which means how it's spreading within our community. And unfortunately, these are the numbers where our region is coming up short. This means that there's been an increase in hospitalization, hospital deaths, as well as the overall spread of this virus," she said.
"And this says to me something very important. And I'm, that's why I'm pleading with every one of you. This is an area where we have the most control, we have the ability, each and every one of us to stop the spread of this transmission if we adhere to what you've been hearing about for months, wearing your face mask, sanitizing your hands, not going out in public gatherings."
Added Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz on Friday: "I've had multiple conversations with state officials in the last 24 hours, especially about the difference between Western New York and the Finger Lakes region, and why we're in general going down and the Finger Lakes is going up. But they can meet the metric because they've had less than 15 hospitalizations, on average for a three-day period.
"We have not, but I want to see that number continue to go down. That is how we're going to open up when that goes down. The deaths in hospitals go down, and we'll have a much better chance of meeting the metrics to reopen."
State Senator George Borrello represents the Southern Tier and parts of Livingston County.
"Do you think that your part of Western New York should be able to start phase one before maybe Erie County?" 2 On Your Side’s Kelly Dudzik asked.
"Yes, absolutely. In fact, I put forth a plan back on April 15, along with my colleague, Assemblyman Andy Goodell that actually the Governor ended up adopting for the most part, not officially, of course, that called for us to do this phase reopening by the 10 economic development zones throughout the state, which he did do," Borrello said.
"But an important part of our plan was to pull out those major metropolitan areas within those economic development zones because of population density. And have you done that, then, yes, the counties that I represent, would be able to open right now we have met those metrics."
Added Poloncarz: "I want to reopen to grow the economy. I mean, economies recover, people who died do not, it's as simple as that. And, what we need to do is what’s best to protect the public's health so that we can then reopen the economy, our economy will recover. It might take some time, but it will recover. But if somebody dies needlessly, that shouldn't because they were exposed to COVID-19. They're not coming back.
"So, we as a community need to do what's best to protect all. And I think if we do that, then fairly soon, I've been saying all along, I think we'll reopen by June 1. But if these numbers keep on bouncing, and we keep on having increases and decreases, increases and decreases, it's going to be tough for the state to say go ahead and open. We won't meet the metrics."
Added Borrello: "This has been unfair from the beginning, and yet despite all that, we have not seen any spikes in cases in our area. So, you know, this, not only is that unfair, it's clearly, you know, been done in a way that if it's safe to do in a public project and a public project, if it's safe to do something that's been deemed essential, and we haven't seen any spikes, then taking those safety precautions, which is what our call for should be able to be applied, not just to those who've been deemed essential, but anyone that can open safely, Phase 1, particularly here in the rural parts of Western New York," says .
Borrello said businesses in his district already have plans in place for how to safely reopen. Poloncarz, the Erie County Executive, says you can't reopen without a plan.