Nassau County Executive Laura Curran told Newsmax TV on Friday that New York should start planning on opening the state "in a regional way" in response to the coronavirus outbreak and the economic crisis it's caused.
During an appearance on "National Report," Curran noted that although Long Island is one of the hardest-hit areas in New York by the coronavirus, things are looking up in Nassau County. She said that in the last week and a half, more patients are leaving hospitals than are coming into them, and "the number of people who are on ventilators has remained stable, in fact it's decreasing slightly."
She said, "This trend has held, and in fact the gap between the ones leaving and the new ones coming in has grown wider and wider almost every day. This is excellent news and it makes me begin to think: we have to start to reopen, how do we do this? We have to do it in a regional way, as Gov. [Andrew] Cuomo is [discussing] with governors in surrounding states."
"We need to start thinking about what can we start to reopen and how can we do it safely because while we're managing the health crisis, we've got an economic crisis barreling down on us," she added.
Curran did clarify that she isn't advocating for the lockdown to end completely, but said that "when we have the PPE [personal protective equipment] and we have the proper social distancing, we can see about how to bring things back," suggesting that Long Island could start with "boat ramps, marinas, golf courses, beaches, these are the perfect places to practice social distancing and start to crank up the machinery of life again."
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Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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