Amid rising COVID-19 cases across the country, Andrew Cuomo on Saturday announced a new strategy to tackle COVID-19 during the fall and winter days by targeting micro-clusters. The Governor outlined the strategy at a briefing in New York.
Cuomo said that the fight against coronavirus will now be carried out not at the level of the entire state or region, but «area by area.»
“We're going to implement a microcluster strategy in the fall,” he explained.
According to Cuomo, microcluster areas — where outbreaks of the potentially deadly virus are observed — are now in Orange, Rockland, Queens and Brooklyn.
The governor also detailed how New York state officials prevented a wedding in Williamsburg that they claimed would have attracted «more than 10,000 people.»
The Rockland County Sheriff's Office informed authorities about the wedding on Monday. The celebration was to take place outside the cluster zones in Brooklyn. Last night, the New York City sheriff's office handed the organizer a cancellation order signed by the state health commissioner.
The governor said the microclusters will be declared «red zones.» Buffer zones around them will be considered “orange” depending on the density of COVID-19 clusters, and areas outside the buffer zones will be “yellow”, also depending on cluster density. Targeted testing will be conducted in each of the zones, its own rules and security measures will be observed.
Cuomo also announced that starting October 23, cinemas outside of New York could open at 25% occupancy and seating for up to 50 people per auditorium. Mandatory social distancing and other precautions will also be practiced.
“If people follow the rules, the virus will not spread,” the governor added.
Cuomo noted that New York has one of the lowest infection rates in the country, averaging 1.1% as of Saturday — just like two weeks ago.
The governor said he hopes the vaccine will become available in winter.
