Governor Andrew Cuomo yesterday (Tuesday) named real estate, construction and banking leaders to a new advisory board tasked with guiding New York’s coronavirus reopening strategy.
Bill Rudin, Scott Rechler and Rob Speyer, along with REBNY president James Whelan, Building Congress boss Carlo Scissura and construction labor leader Gary La Barbera, were among over 100 business, community and civic leaders from industries across the state appointed to the New York Forward Re-Opening Advisory Board.
The group, led by former Secretaries to the Governor, Steve Cohen and Bill Mulrow, will plan how and when phased re-opening will proceed and what new guidelines will have to be followed to allow the economy to restart safely.
“We’ve come up with a phased plan to re-open New York so every region in the state has the same opening template as we begin this process,” Governor Cuomo said. “We have to be smart about this – emotions can’t drive our re-opening process – and we’ve come up with factual data points that each region must monitor as they begin to re-open. We’ve also created a New York Forward Re-Opening Advisory Board made up of business, academic, community and civic leaders from across the state to help guide this process and ensure businesses are following the necessary guidelines to preserve public health as we work towards a new normal.”
With a statewide total to 295,106 confirmed coronavirus cases, the reopening will follow a regional strategy, with each region allowed to start the process after it experiences a 14-day decline in the COVID-19 hospitalization rate.
Businesses in each region will re-open in phases. Phase one will include opening construction and manufacturing functions with low risk. Phase two will open certain industries based on priority and risk level. Businesses considered “more essential” with inherent low risks of infection in the workplace and to customers will be prioritized, followed by other businesses considered “less essential” or those that present a higher risk of infection spread. Regions must not open attractions or businesses that would draw a large number of visitors from outside the local area.
Each business and industry must have a plan to protect employees and consumers, make the physical work space safer and implement processes that lower risk of infection in the business.
To maintain the phased re-opening plan, each region must have at least 30 percent of hospital beds and ICU beds available after elective surgeries resume.
Regions must implement a testing regimen that prioritizes symptomatic persons and individuals who came into contact with a known COVID-positive person, and conducts frequent tests of frontline and essential workers. Regions must maintain an appropriate number of testing sites to accommodate its population and must fully advertise where and how people can get tested. The region must also use the collected data to track and trace the spread of the virus.
There must be at least 30 contact tracers for every 100,000 people. The region must also monitor the regional infection rate throughout the re-opening plan.
Regions must present plans to have rooms available for people who test positive for COVID-19 and who cannot self-isolate.
Regions must coordinate the re-opening of schools, transportation systems, testing and tracing with other surrounding regions.
Each region must appoint an oversight institution as its control room to monitor regional indicators during the phased re-opening, including hospital capacity, rate of infection, PPE burn rate and businesses.
Regions must continue to ensure protections are in place for essential workers.
For the full list of New York Forward Re-Opening Advisory Board members, click here
