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Cuomo announces hospitals and group homes now allowed to accept visitors

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Tue, Jun 16th 2020 02:25 pm

US Open to be held without fans from Aug. 31-Sept. 13

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday announced hospitals and group homes will be allowed to accept visitors at their discretion. Any facility that chooses to allow visitors must follow state guidelines, including time-limited visits and requiring visitors to wear PPE and be subject to symptom and temperature checks. 

The hospital visitation program expands on a pilot program that was launched in May, which demonstrated that hospitals could provide safe visitation for patients and families.

Hospitals statewide will now be able to provide visitation. Group homes certified by the New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities will be allowed to accept visitors beginning Friday provided they adhere to state guidance and certify compliance to OPWDD prior to commencing visitation. The prohibition on nursing home visitors remains in place as the state Department of Health continues to review.

“We're going to allow hospitals to accept visitors at their discretion,” Cuomo said. “This was always a balance of public health versus the personal relationships; and people who are in hospitals who desperately want to see loved ones, and loved ones who want to see people in hospitals."

•Cuomo announced the U.S. Open will be held in Queens without fans from Aug. 31 to Sept. 13. The USTA will “take extraordinary precautions to protect players and staff, including robust testing, additional cleaning, extra locker room space and dedicated housing and transportation.”

"I am so proud what the people of this state have done to defeat this virus. The numbers are looking very good, and today we are excited to announce that the U.S. Open will be held in Queens without fans this August," Cuomo said. "We must remain vigilant, and the USTA is taking all necessary precautions with players and staff, but this is an exciting day for the state."

USTA CEO and Executive Director Mike Dowse said, "We are incredibly excited that Gov. Cuomo and New York state has approved our plan to host the 2020 U.S. Open and 2020 Western & Southern Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. We recognize the tremendous responsibility of hosting one of the first global sporting events in these challenging times, and we will do so in the safest manner possible, mitigating all potential risks. We now can give fans around the world the chance to watch tennis' top athletes compete for a U.S. Open title, and we can showcase tennis as the ideal social distancing sport. Being able to hold these events in 2020 is a boost for the City of New York and the entire tennis landscape."

•Cuomo said the state has conducted more than 3 million COVID-19 tests to date.

Out of the 60,568 tests conducted in New York state on Monday, only 631 (1.05%) were positive. Each region's percentage of positive tests over the past three days is as follows:

REGION

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

MONDAY

New York City

1.40%

1.30%

1.20%

Capital Region

0.60%

0.70%

0.70%

Central New York

0.60%

1.30%

1.40%

Finger Lakes

0.90%

0.40%

0.60%

Long Island

0.90%

0.90%

1.00%

Hudson Valley

1.00%

1.00%

1.00%

Mohawk Valley

1.40%

0.70%

1.40%

North Country

0.20%

0.00%

0.20%

Southern Tier

0.40%

0.50%

0.20%

Western New York

1.10%

1.40%

1.00%

 

The governor also announced the results of the state's antibody testing survey of 12,000 individuals across the state over a six-week period. The results show 13.4% of the population have COVID-19 antibodies, compared to 12.3% that tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies during a statewide antibody testing study from May 1.

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