BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Western New York region is back to meeting five out of seven requirements to begin the reopening process.
The state released the latest information on their Regional Monitoring Dashboard.
The WNY region is back to meeting the requirement for new hospitalizations. The number has to be under 2 per 100,000 residents (3-day average). On May 14, WNY is currently at 1.81. On Thursday, it had jumped to 2.17, which was up from 1.45 on Wednesday.
There are seven total benchmarks that need to be met before a region in New York State can even consider reopening.
The Western New York region includes Erie, Niagara Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany counties.
WNY has also not met the 14-day decline in net hospitalizations (the Western region currently stands at 1), or having less than 15 new hospitalizations on average over three days, and right now our average is 28, as of May 14.
The other metric WNY is not meeting is a 14-day decline in hospital deaths (the region has only had two days right now), or fewer than five hospital deaths on average over three days, and right now we average nine deaths per day.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has extended New York's 'on pause' order until 11:59 p.m. on May 28 for regions of the state that don't meet reopening requirements, according to an executive order.
The Secretary to the Governor, Melissa DeRosa, tells 2 On Your Side's Heather Ly that as soon as a region meets the benchmark, they can enter phase one of reopening.
