BUFFALO, N.Y. — New York Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul made it official: Western New York will not start the first phase of reopening on Friday.
"Unfortunately tonight, I have to report we are not prepared to meet the necessary requirements to get over the threshold that the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has asked us to follow," Hochul said Thursday evening, speaking with media through a Zoom conference.
Hochul is in charge of leading Western New York's regional reopening.
While she touted strong numbers for the region regarding hospital bed capacity and testing, Western New York does not meet the seven benchmarks needed to start the reopening phase during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The region includes Erie, Niagara, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany counties.
When asked by 2 On Your Side's Leanne Stuck about whether the benchmarks could be shifted, Hochul said no.
"We have to get this reopening right. We can't guess, and hope, and dream," Hochul said, later adding, "We were in the throes of a global pandemic. We don't want to see what happened in New York City happen again."
2 On Your Side's Michael Wooten asked Hochul whether the state's revision of a policy involving nursing homes had an impact on Western New York's numbers.
"Many, many cases are unrelated to nursing homes," Hochul said, adding that people in their 30s, 40s and 50s who are contracting the virus.
Hochul also warned of an increase of Pediatric Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome cases across New York State.
"This virus has been wildly unpredictable," she said. "And now we understand that it's actually affecting children. There are over 100 cases in the state of New York, the first place we've seen this, but now we're seeing spikes in other states and indeed other countries."