Statement from NYS Senator Daphne Jordan: It's time to re-open the Capital Region

“It’s time to re-open the Capital Region. The metrics utilized by Governor Cuomo for re-opening are faulty and resulting in our eight-County Capital Region, businesses, and communities continuing to remain closed, causing tremendous financial pain for businesses, job losses for workers, and a massive loss of sales tax revenue for local governments. A careful examination of the numbers used by the Governor clearly shows that the avoidable tragedy of nursing home deaths is holding the Capital Region back from re-opening. Regarding hospitalizations and deaths, New York City and Long Island have far surpassed the Capital Region, yet we are still not allowed to re-open. In fact, the Capital Region ‘failed’ the Governor’s first metric – 14-day decline in hospitalizations or under 15 new hospitalizations, 3-day average – with 18 hospitalizations, while New York City had 820, and Long Island had 425. Also, under the Governor’s criteria, the Capital Region ‘fails’ the second metric – 14-day decline in hospital deaths or fewer than 5 deaths, 3-day average, with 6 deaths, while New York City has 502, and Long Island has 99. These huge discrepancies point to faulty metrics that have led to a faulty outcome. The longer the Capital Region remains closed, more individuals will lose their jobs and the state’s unemployment backlog will only continue to grow. I’m also renewing my call for the State Department of Labor to fix its broken system so hundreds of thousands of people can get the help they need. It’s time to re-open the Capital Region so our employers and workers can finally get back to business.” 

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