As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, New York City Mayor de Blasio has outlined a plan for when to reopen the city. The plan includes three key indicators that must all happen in order to consider reopening the city and businesses.
Social distancing and self-quarantining has helped slow and prevent the spread of COVID-19, and New York is beginning to see the curve flatten. While this progress is encouraging, we must continue social distancing and take preventative measures. Below is the mayor office's breakdown of the pandemic and necessary progress to reopen the city.
Three phases of the COVID-19 pandemic
The mayor's office has outlined three phases of the pandemic. As we work through to the last phase, the city can begin to plan reopening.
1. Widespread Transmission -- current phase
- Regularly seeing new cases
- Strong guidelines needed
- Testing prioritized for healthcare workers and hospitalizations
- Social distancing will be critical to advance to next phase
2. Low-Level Transmission (hopefully reached in late May or June)
- Seeing regular new cases but able to trace new cases back to “index” source
- Rules/Guidance: some relaxing of social distancing measures
- Greater testing capacity
- At this stage, testing will be important to advance to the next phase
3. No transmission
- Very few cases in NYC, many from outside the city
- A large volume of testing will be needed for anyone with COVID-19 symptoms or potential exposure
- No social distancing
Three key indicators for reopening the city
With reopening the city on the horizon, the following has been deemed necessary in order to to do. When all three indicators have declined together for a set time period, the City will consider changing restrictions.
- People admitted to hospitals for suspected COVID-19 cases
- People admitted to hospital ICUs for suspected COVID-19 cases
- Percentage of people tested who are positive for COVID-19
Resources on COVID-19 & Apicha CHC
Apicha CHC is doing its part in helping fight the pandemic and has made changes to how we offer our services. If you'd like more information about COVID-19 and Apicha CHC, please visit our resource page here.
