Cuomo extends stay-at-home order for New York City, other regions

Just before five regions in upstate New York hit “unpause” and began to reopen their economies on Friday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order extending stay-at-home orders for parts of New York. The “New York on PAUSE” order will remain in effect until at least May 28 for regions that haven’t hit the seven benchmarks necessary for reopening. Those regions include New York City, Long Island, Western New York, the Capital Region and the Mid-Hudson Valley. One important caveat buried in the order: Any of those regions can begin the first phase of reopening as soon as they hit all seven benchmarks for reopening, which include measures of consistent declines in deaths and hospitalizations.

Still, when this latest executive order came online late Thursday night, it provoked some confusion because two dates were mentioned in it – May 28 and June 13 – causing some uncertainty about which date applied to the stay-at-home orders. In response to one reporter’s tweet explaining the order, state Sen. Diane Savino tweeted, “I am so confused.” 

Rich Azzopardi, senior adviser to Cuomo, told City & State on Friday that the executive order extends the stay-at-home orders until May 28, but extends other aspects of New York’s state of emergency through June 13. Those aspects include the suspension of rules that penalize people knowingly claiming more than they are eligible for in unemployment benefits.

Azzopardi said if he could do it over again, he would organize this executive order differently to avoid confusion. “Under this emergency declaration, actions we take are only good for 30 days,” he said. “They have to continuously be renewed, which is why some of this stuff always seems a little confusing and jumbled. A lot of it is just extending what we already did for another 30 days.”