I hope all of my readers are well today, wherever you all may be.
Last week’s post talked about how we in New York City are in Phase One of reopening. As I’m typing this, we’re on the verge of entering Phase Two, which is expected to start next Monday. It came as a bit of a surprise to me, as I had expected to maybe wait until July to get to this phase.
What does this mean? In short, a lot of places will be able to reopen, including many offices, more retail, vehicle sales, and much more. For details on what Phase Two in New York State involves, you can learn about that here.
The reopening process is by no means over (there are four phases, and we’re about to enter Phase Two here), but we have come a long way. We used to have hundreds of deaths a day in New York City alone from the coronavirus, but yesterday, we had 20 new confirmed deaths. Furthermore, our hospitals are nowhere near capacity like they were at the beginning of the pandemic. We are by no means in a perfect place, especially economically, but health-wise, we’re in a much better place than we were a couple of months ago.
And how is that? How has New York seemingly succeeded in curbing the spread of the virus while some other states have failed? While I still strongly believe that we waited too long to act in New York, we also ended up acting aggressively and in-line with the recommendations from public health experts, especially in terms of strongly urging people to wear masks and socially distance. Furthermore, as we are reopening, it’s being made clear that it is not a return to the old normal, but instead a new normal where we socially distance and wear masks; therefore, I don’t think New York State has thus far experienced the spike in cases that many states have experienced as they reopened.
How is COVID-19 in your part of the United States, or your part of the world (if you’re not in the U.S.)? I’m more than happy to hear updates from my readers.
Blind Injustice 
More good news from your neck of the woods Brendan. I only wish states like AL and Fla would take heed of the lessons New York learned. Sadly, things are still getting worse here in AL. I’ll be giving my update tomorrow.
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Yeah, it sounds like the parts of the country slowest to put in restrictions (and quickest to remove them) are really paying the price. It gets really concerning when you’re talking about strained hospitals–in places hit the hardest by COVID worldwide, hospitals are having to choose between who to save and who to let die. That’s a decision no doctor should ever have to make.
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Reblogged this on By Hook Or By Book and commented:
Brendan’s latest update from NYC brings some more good news. I wish the 22 states who are seeing COVID-19 surges would only take heed of the measures New York had to take.
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I’m from South Australia, in Australia. We haven’t had any cases in about two weeks now? We’ve been doing pretty well, the only times recently where we had cases. Were from people who had originally tested negative, but as I’m sure you know. It can take a while for the virus to show. Over the last month or so we’ve had two cases who originally tested negative. We’ve been doing really well, apart from that. We’re even starting to reopen borders to other states that have been doing well. I think the Northern Territory, didn’t even get up to 10 cases,lol
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That’s promising! I’m not good with my Australian geography, I must admit, but I know many parts of the country are not densely populated at all. That by itself can help slow the spread of the virus. Needless to say, I’m happy, but not 100% surprised, that parts of Australia are doing okay. Are the metropolitan areas (like Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, etc.) doing okay?
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I found out only a few hours ago that Victoria has had to go back into lockdown. The other states are getting better though!
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Hmmm. Interesting. I assume cases are going up over there? I’m not too familiar with what the COVID-19 situation is in Australia, I must admit.
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Massachusetts seems to be doing okay. I will say that I am not sure what phase Boston is in as they were starting after most cities and towns which only makes sense. I think because we are n the Northeast compact with NY, CT, RI, PA and MA, maybe NJ we have a plan and are adhering to it which is important in order to do this in a sensible way.
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Yeah, it seems like the states that got hit hard from an early stage are starting to recover and reopen cautiously. Now it’s the states that took longest to close (and were fastest to reopen) that are looking concerning.
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It’s not looking great in NC, but since I don’t know anyone who has/had the virus personally, I’m removed from it–I just see the headlines. People here won’t wear masks and refuse to believe the pandemic is real–not all, but far too many. Systemic racism and pandemics don’t exist if we don’t experience them personally *rolls eyes*
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Yep. I think that with too many things, including racism and pandemics, people need to “see it to believe it.” And, sometimes the temptation is to not worry about something (whether it be racism, a pandemic, or a pandemic exposing racism) unless it affects us.
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