ALBANY – As some regions of New York state begin the process of slowly phasing in the reopening of their economies in the wake of the COVID-19 related statewide shutdown, Western New York – which includes Chautauqua County – will remain on pause.
Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul said Thursday night that Western New York is not ready to reopen after the region experienced another setback and is now not meeting three of the seven metrics necessary for reopening, under the Forward New York plan, including a steady decline in new hospitalizations.
However, Chautauqua County executive PJ Wendel told WRFA on Thursday that just because hospitalizations are not seeing a steady decline in numbers, it doesn’t mean the region is in trouble.
“A way to positively look at this would be to say, yes we are seeing an uptick but it’s not stressing our hospitals and healthcare system. We don’t see an overburdening of hospital staff. So I don’t think this is a good sign, but I think it can be seen in a positive way that although we are seeing a slight uptick, we are also able to say we are able to handle this,” Wendel said.
Of the seven metrics – the region is now only meeting four of them. The metrics not being met are:
- 14-day Decline in Net Hospitalizations OR Under 15 New Hospitalizations (3-day avg);
- 14-day Decline in Hospital Deaths OR Fewer than 5 Deaths (3-day avg);
- New Hospitalizations (Under 2 per 100K residents – 3 day rolling avg).
State officials say the metrics are based on guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control.
Chautauqua County joins the more heavily populated Erie and Niagara Counties – along with the more rural Cattaraugus and Allegany Counties – as the five counties making up the region.
Earlier this week Chautauqua County’s representatives in Albany and Washington held a joint press conference calling on the state to consider allowing the county – along with Cattaraugus and Allegany Counties – to begin reopening, even if the Western New York region is unable to do so has a whole.
A total of five regions in the state will be opening today. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that Central New York is joining the the North Country, Finger Lakes, Southern Tier and Mohawk Valley Regions in beginning to reopen, starting Friday. Those five regions can begin opening businesses for phase one, which includes construction, manufacturing, and retail for curbside pickup and drop-off or in-store pickup. Phase two will allowed to begin two weeks later, baring any setbacks.
Also on Thursday, Gov. Cuomo extended the New York on Pause executive order for the entire state through June 13. However, he also indicated the extension could end sooner for some regions, depending on how they do in dealing with the seven metrics used to track COVID-19.
County executive Wendel extended Chautauqua County’s State of Emergency for up to thirty additional days due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. The extension is the result of the region continuing to remain On Pause and helps the County qualify for state and federal assistance related to the County’s response to COVID-19.
On Wednesday, the state saw an additional 2,390 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 343,051 with over 27,000 deaths.
There were no New Cases of COVID-19 reported in Chautauqua County on Thursday. So far there has been 44 total cases with 7 of them being active and 33 counted as recovered. There’s also been 4 deaths. County officials also say a total of 142 cases remain under quarantine/isolation orders and being monitored. Not all of those being monitored are confirmed to have COVID-19 but have either shown symptoms, are awaiting results, or have risk factors.
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